SNAP
by Ringshadow
Summary: Just because no one really notices Slippy doesn't mean there isn't things he's good at. Knowledge is power to those who know how to use it.


Snap

Chapter One

            "Fox?"

            "Yo." Fox tilted his chair back absently, looking at Falco upside-down. He was sprawled in the huge old easy chair, in casual clothing, a comic book open in his lap. Falco fought the urge to laugh, as much as Fox was all business with the Generals and the press, he was just an average teenager under it all, and sometimes it was glaringly obvious.

            "You have a com call." Falco leaned his arms on the top of the chair, looking down at his squad leader. "And just for grins, you may want to take it."

            "Ok, let me guess. Beltino trying to amp our debt again?"

            "Strike one." Falco said, spinning the chair around as Fox tossed the comic book on the coffee table and stood.

            "Hmm… The General saying there was a mistake and the check he wrote for us was too large?" Fox picked up his two-liter of soda from the coffee table and followed Falco down the hall, taking a long swig from the bottle absently then recapping it.

            "Strike two." Falco held the door for him.

            "Thus-and-so from whichever paper or TV show, wanting an exclusive interview?"

            "Half right."

            Fox flopped into the chair and hit the flashing hold button, twisting the cap back off the two-liter as the image came up. He didn't know the face that looked back at him, but she was young, hair clipped up, though one strand of it had escaped and trailed along her brow. She was a cheetah, and he recognized the mark of a cyber chip across one of her temples. "So, you wanted to talk to me?" He prompted, taking another drink.

            "That I did." She replied easily. "I suppose you want to know who I am, first things first."

            "Well, yeah, not everyone has access to the com number of the Great Fox."

            "True. I don't." She grinned at him. "My name is Nicole. Nicole Williams. I'd like your permission to come on board your ship for part of a day."

            "Now, no insult to you, but why should I do that? I can't just be letting tourists on board." He propped his chin on his hand, looking at her. She looked back.

            "This is true, but I'm not exactly your average tourist. I'm a freelance photographer."

            "You're Press." He stated.

            "I'm a freelance." She replied. "Not Press. Big difference. If you do decide to let me on board, I can get there myself, I do have a plane."

            "A civilian with a plane eh? Little orbit-cruising rig?" 

            "Not hardly, it's a two-seater converted S10-HawkEye. Which I believe was a predecessor of your arwings, unless I am wrong." She grinned. "So, can I come on board or what, Commander McCloud?"

            "Call me Fox. We your first job, Ms. Freelance? And what would a photographer want with a cruiser?"

            "Not hardly. You guys get TIME magazine?"

            "Peppy does."

            "There was a special edition not long ago, a photo journal of the war. Look me up, I'm in it. I'm extremely well respected in the photography world, Fox. It would take all of a day, and you don't even have to be around. I just want permission to wander your ship with a camera. Now don't worry, I'm not going to go photograph anything seen as 'top secret.'" She hooked her fingers in the air to put 'top secret' in quotes. "I just want to show the public the real machines, and maybe the real people, that won the war."

            "Oh well, what the hell. Sure." Fox shrugged. "When?"

            "Tomorrow if you don't mind. One more request, can I bring my dog?"

            He blinked at her. "Why on earth would you want to bring your dog?"

            "He goes everywhere with me. He's a Doberman, which I trained, so don't worry about your furniture being chewed on."

            "See you tomorrow then."

            She nodded, and the screen went blank as she hung up.

            "Why'd you agree?" Falco asked, leaning on the doorway.

            "Why not? It's been a boring last few weeks. It might break the monotony."

            "Nicole 'Snap' Williams. Won an adult's photography contest at the age of eight, became a freelance at the age of fourteen. During the war she became known for flying into under siege areas and helping refugees, taking pictures the entire time." Peppy said, showing Fox a picture that spanned across an entire magazine. It was beautiful and horrible, a sunset while the Venomians did a bombing run during the war. Fire complimented the colors of the sky and smoke tinted clouds.

            "My." Fox took the magazine, staring at the picture. "Know anything about her having a cyber implant?" He tapped his temple.

            "That's not exactly available in press releases, but yes, she was interviewed and mentioned that she had one, didn't say why though."

            "That's HER?" Slippy asked as Fox turned the page, looking at a picture in the corner of the magazine which was the size of a normal photograph. It was a picture of Nicole and her dog, her with a foot propped up on a piece of rubble, leaning on her knee, camera hanging around her neck. 

            "Yes indeed, that's the one. She's going to be here sometime tomorrow." Fox glanced at him.

            "Why Slip, are we a bit smitten?" Falco goaded.

            "Shut up, feather head." Slippy snapped.

            Katt took the magazine from Fox, staring at the picture he had turned to, brushing her hand across it. It was Zoness early on from the war, and the picture was a coastline picture, beautiful if it hadn't been for the slaughtered sea creatures laying on the beach and the awful colors slowly spreading through the water. "My god." She whispered.

            "She was well known before the war, but the pictures she got during it sealed her fame." Said Peppy. "Apparently she's daring enough to go behind enemy lines and such."

            "Daring? Try stupid." Falco shook his head. "And what's this about her dog coming?"

            "All I know is that it is." Fox spread his hands helplessly.

            "A bit was said in interviews about that too. " Peppy jumped back into the conversation. "Apparently she came close to the Venomians during the war. Real close. Like five feet away. She was almost captured, but she had brought her dog along, and a single word from her had the soldier pinned on the ground. The dog also helps carry equipment and such, according to what I've read."

            "Interesting." Falco looked at a photography magazine Peppy had gotten his paws on, eyes widening when he turned the page. "She's done inner Corneria City too… I used to live in that building…"

            "My, she isn't even here yet and yet the monotony is broken." Fox said cheerfully.

            Peppy had to laugh. "Don't mind your baby of a cruiser being photographed, eh?"

            "No, the technology is known, so why not?" Fox idly spun his chair.

            "Speaking of technology, how could a mere teen photographer, no matter how known, afford a cyber implant?" Slippy asked. "They're really, really expensive, no matter how popular they seem."

            "You got me, guy. Guess we're going to find out."

            The S10-HawkEye glided into the docking bay and landed, the pistons in the gear hissing slightly as the plane automatically balanced itself and settled, engines cooling. Moments later, the cockpit popped open, and Nicole swung out and sat on the edge of the plane, pushing a pair of very cool, probably very expensive sunglasses up so they sat on top of her head. A Doberman moved from the back seat to stand with its front paws propped on the back of the front seat, then leapt from the plane as she did, claws clicking and scraping the metal floor.

            "Howdy, Commander McCloud. Thanks for letting me on board." Nicole grinned. As in the picture of her in the magazine, a camera hung heavy around her neck. She wore cargo pants with too many pockets to count, a tank top, and a utility vest. As Fox watched, she managed a partway salute. "Oh yeah, and this is Tek, my dog."

            The dog woofed softly, but didn't move from Nicole's side.

            "A pleasure to have you on board." Fox replied, gesturing for her to follow. She did, and he paused at the door when he heard the click. She had stopped and lifted the camera, capturing the image of her S10 and one of the Arwings, parked in the bay, with space a thin magnetic shield away.

            "You're Nicole?" Slippy asked. He had been waiting for them in the hallway, wearing a polo shirt and khakis.

            "Afraid so. So you're Slippy eh? I've had the curse and blessing to know your father." She shook his hand.

            "Curse and blessing?"

            "Interviewed him a bit, took some pictures around ArSpace Dynamics. He's a great guy really, but he was a bit pissed when he found out that I was there without permission from anyone."

            Slippy grinned, looking a bit flustered, then his gaze went to the Doberman. "So this is the dog that saved your life eh?"

            "Yup, this is Tek."

            Slippy patted the dog on the head, which panted and let him.

            "Come on, you may as well meet the rest of the group." Fox said, leading the pair down the hall.

            _I do believe that the short guy is a bit sweet on you._

            Nicole didn't even bother looking at Tek. The sound of the dog's metal-tipped nails rattling on the floor echoed through the corridor, muffling only when they reached carpet. 'Yeah, whatever, Tek.' She thought a bit darkly.

            _Don't blame me. You're the one that had me get smart._

            'Sometimes I wish to all powers I could undo that.'

            _Oh you know you love me._

            They turned onto the bridge, where Peppy, Katt, and Falco were. All three stood and exchanged introductions with Nicole, who cheerfully nodded, going through a complex handshake with Falco and saluting to Peppy, who smiled and returned it. Only then did she take a good long look at her surroundings, camera immediately coming up to catch ROB as he turned to look at her.

            "Oh and what is this? Been looking me up eh?" Nicole asked, looking at the magazines stacked on an unused consol.

            "Yes indeed. I'm not sure if you're brave or stupid." Falco said bluntly. "Going behind enemy lines during a war…"

            "Oh who's going to kill a freelance photographer? Besides, you have to admit I caught some good images."

            "I'd say so." Said Katt, who was being haunted by the pictures of Zoness, one of which she had gotten a print of, one of the very early ones, a flight of planes over a beautiful forest and lake, their passage causing the cranes there to run and take off, white wings throwing up diamonds of water.

            "Nicole Williams? I am ROB, the ship computer."

            Nicole shook the robot's hand. "A pleasure. I take it you don't mind my presence, eh?"

            "No I am flattered you find me interesting enough to photograph, and when I say 'me' I mean of course myself and the cruiser as it is part of my being."

            She laughed. "This is a beautiful ship, ROB. Of course it's worth photographing. Though I don't exactly specialize in beautiful things. I'd rather take pictures of the truth."

            "Plenty of that around here."

            "What are you, some kind of camera vigilante?" Falco asked.

            "Only on days that end in Y." She told him cheerfully.

            "Hey Nicole."

            "Yes?" She asked, not looking at Slippy, focusing the camera on a wide-angle lens to catch a shot of the entire upper bay, making sure to get the tail and engine of the Great Fox in the background focused but a bit faded. The blackness of space and the glow of the engines made for an interesting backdrop.

            "Mind if I ask you something?"

            "Shoot." She said, changing camera lenses once the shot had been taken.

            "How'd you end up with the cyber implant?"

            She looked at him. He was sitting on one of the wings of an Arwing, one arm propped on the cockpit, looking at her. She lifted the camera back up, took the picture, then replied. "It's a long story."

            "Like I have anything better to do?"

            In her head, Tek laughed at her, looking up from where he was sprawled. _Yup, he's smit, Nicole._

            She ignored the dog. "It's a long story you don't want to hear." She corrected, brushing the tendril of hair out of her face.

            "Sure I do."

            She looked at him. "Why do you care? Besides the fact that you're a techno wizard, I mean."

            He chuckled. "Just curious. I know cyber implants are expensive, because if they weren't so costly, hell, I'D have one. Almost got one a year ago, but my car decided to need a brake job." He shrugged. "So how'd you get yours?"

            She considered, then said very carefully, "Let's just say it isn't officially there, ok?"

            He stared. "You got a HACKED cyber implant? A black market one?"

            She brushed the question off, leaving the bay, Tek close behind her. Slippy hopped off the wing of the plane and followed her, hands clasped behind his back.

            "Sorry I said anything." He said, catching up to her. "I'm just curious, and black market chips… wow. You are one brave chick."

            "I never said it was black market."

            "But you said it was unofficial, which makes it unregistered."

            She tossed a hand. "It's a long, long story."

            "I've got plenty of time to listen to it. I know you're busy right now though, so how about dinner?"

            She tried to focus on his words, which was difficult with Tek going into hysterics in her head. "We met like an hour ago."

            "So?"

            She looked at him. She had to give him credit, he was trying his damnedest. She figured he probably hadn't dated much during his high school and Academy years, and for some reason had taken a liking to her. "Maybe that can be arranged." She paused in the hallway, changing camera lenses again absently, which was her version of fidgeting.

            "Hey, great."

            "Ok, you lovebird, ROB needs you." Falco appeared from nowhere, grinning at Slippy.

            "Falco!" Slippy sputtered, blushing a bit. After stammering an apology to Nicole, he took off down the hall.

            "You were eavesdropping." Nicole said flatly.

            "And what can you possibly do about it?" Falco asked.

            "Action."

            Tek's muscles contracted and extended like a spring, and he was in the air, taking Falco down and pinning him to the metal floor.

            "Pause."

            Tek effortlessly held Falco there, teeth bared just slightly. Falco froze and didn't move, staring up at the Doberman, some part of his brain noticing the metal serrated teeth, and the fact that there was a dimly flashing light behind one of the dog's eyes.

            "You know, I'm really quite easy-going, but a person eavesdropping on me just bothers the holy hell out of me." Nicole said, crouching beside Falco's shoulders. "Get me?"

            "Oh yeah, I get you. You can call your dog off now."

            She stood with a smile. "Cut."

            Tek relaxed, even going so far as to flick his tongue out and tag the end of Falco's beak, then backed off, sitting down on the floor and panting.

            "What's going on?"

            Nicole looked at Fox. "Oh your buddy here just learned not to eavesdrop on me. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine." She hefted Falco to his feet, dusted him off, and continued down the hallway, her dog pacing her.

            "You ok, Fal?" Fox asked.

            "Yeah, I'm fine…" He rubbed his lower beak absently. "Her dog is a cyborg, Fox."

            "Say what?"

            "Metal teeth and there was a light behind one of its eyes."

            "Even if that's true… cyborg guard dogs are expensive as hell and are only used for top-rank Federal buildings and maybe the capitol. Why would a photographer have one?"

            They looked at each other.

            "Maybe she isn't a photographer?" Falco hazarded.

            "Or she isn't ONLY a photographer." Fox shrugged. "Well, hell, I don't even care, as long as she's only here to take pictures."

            "You are way too easy going, man."

            "Hey if she spent a mil or two on her dog, that's her problem."

            _That was a bit stupid. Tek said as they walked. _Given that the oversized chicken was eavesdropping, but still…__

            'You know me, Tek. I like to get things over with fast. Short, sharp shock. Gets them used to it.' She replied, scratching the dog's ears absently. It tried to kick a foot as it walked and fell over. 'Real graceful.'

            _Oh, I meant to do that. The dog grunted, clambering to its feet. _Just the same, it's probably time for maintenance.__

            'Me too.' She rolled a wrist absently, feeling the no-longer-smooth pull of muscles and grinding of bone.

            _Yeah, wouldn't want to break down on your hot date._

            'Shut up.' She grinned, laughing silently, stepping onto the bridge. Slippy looked up, apparently clicking new power packs into ROB, and didn't so much as blink when the camera flash filled the room. "ROB need some new Duracell's or something?" She asked with a grin.

            "Nah, some energizers. Keeps going and going." Slippy laughed, ducking as ROB swung a metal arm to smack him, then dodging out of the way.

            "No copper tops for him eh?"

            "Nope."

            "You two are crazy." ROB declared, turning back to his screens absently.

            "At least we have senses of humor." Slippy rolled his large eyes and turned to Nicole. "So when do you want to have dinner?"

            She considered, waving her tail back and forth and going through a mental calendar. Yeah, it was time for some maintenance. "Could it wait two days? That way I have tonight and tomorrow to develop my pictures."

            "No problem! What's your address? I can pick you up…"

            "I'll e-mail it to you, ok?" She had put the wide-angle lens back on her camera, backing up to the door and gesturing him out of the shot absently. He willingly moved.

            "Eh, works for me. I'm surprised you agreed to go with me at all…" He smiled sheepishly. "I'm not exactly a lady killer."

            "Well, I'm glad you're not, I'd rather live."

            He laughed.

            _Division Ten will probably want a report of some kind._

            Nicole sighed. "Probably, Tek, probably. But they won't get one. I mean, what I do on my free time is my business, right?"

            _True, but if Star Fox even wonders about your past, they'll start to nose around, and all they know is that Division Ten exists, and you know D10 will want to keep it that way._

            "Yeah, anal jerks that they are." She sighed again, rubbing the cyber implant on her temple as she hovered in the holding pattern around the airport.

            "S10-HawkEye 487, you are clear for landing on Pad 18."

            "Copy that, clear." She replied, taking her plane in and easily going through the horizontal touchdown, instructing the airport robot there on which hanger to store her plane in and running her card through its scanner to prove she was registered with said hanger. That done, she walked down the shielded sidewalk with Tek, ignoring the planes only a few feet above her head, going to the garage.

            The car waiting there was a recent sports car, a slick black job she had actually gotten paid to take. As she approached, the broadcast went out from her cyber implant, and the alarms on her car turned off with a click, the engine firing to life and convertible top easily sliding down. A recreational pilot, who was getting out of an SUV nearby, froze and stared as the car started by itself and rolled over to where Nicole waited. Nicole winked at the pilot, swinging into the driver's seat as Tek hopped into shotgun, then gunned the engine and sped out of the garage, leaving a long black mark behind her.

            The half-hour drive home was enjoyable at least, out away from the city and into the hills that overlooked the main sprawl. This land was a hot commodity, even hotter since their natural beauty way, way restricted building. She had been an original investor, and now her sprawling cabin was nearly invisible, hidden among the surrounding trees but with a good view of the city below. The garage was in the basement, and she pulled in easily, hopping out of the car and shutting it down using her implant absently.

            "D10 tried to call you."

            She didn't so much as glance. She had seen the black jeep parked around back as she drove up her driveway. "Mark."

            "Nicole." The coyote nodded once, pupils lighting up red as hers did, scanning over each other. "Almost time for maintenance, I see?"

            "Going in tomorrow. You're pretty close yourself, hot shot." She added this somewhat darkly as she unlocked her door and went inside her house, Mark close behind her.

            "So, where have you been all day where D10 couldn't reach you?"

            "Doing my hobby. Managed to get on board the Great Fox, take some pictures." She tried to make her voice neutral.

            He whistled, long and low. "Now wonder you didn't answer the calls."

            "I left my beeper here and blocked incomings on my implant." She ejected the film roll from her camera and pocketed it, setting the heavy camera on the kitchen counter and making coffee absently.

            "Shame on you."

            "You do it every time you have a 'hot date.'"

            He shrugged. "So I do. Got to enjoy my nerves and skin while I still have them babe."

            "Don't tell me you're going full drone." She looked at him.

            "Nah. Not unless I absolutely have to. I mean, enough of me's artificial already." He smirked.

            "I don't need to know the extent." She rolled her eyes.

            "So, went skinny again eh?" He gestured at her cheetah build, accepting a cup of coffee.

            "This is my casual face and you know it."

            "Hey, I like the spots."

            "I'm sure you do." She stirred sugar into her coffee, watching the lighter color swirl through it.

            _Hey, don't forget me. I mean, I am the one that does all the work around here._

            Smiling, she poured another mug of coffee and set it on the floor. Tek hooked a paw through the handle of the mug and lifted it easily, leg shifting to take the weight, lapping coffee out of the mug.

            "Why couldn't you have named him Rover? I mean, 'Tek' is kind of obvious, especially for a dog that has metal teeth and claws." Marks asked. Tek gave him a dirty look.

            "No one asks." She shrugged. "And he named himself, thank you very much."

            There was silence for a while.

            "Oh, I tell you I splurged again?" He asked.

            "Well the jeep isn't new, so what'd you buy?"

            "Got myself a Bayliner. You know, a pleasure boat?"

            "Those things are on par with a house or a BMW in cost."

            "Yup."

            "How DO you get so much money?"

            "Simple, I bust my butt at work. I don't see why you don't."

            "Because I'm happy where I am." She took a long drink of her coffee. "Listen, I'm going to develop my pictures. I assume you'll be at D10 tomorrow?"

            He grinned, drinking all of his coffee in a gulp. "You know it, babe." With a flicker of movement and light, he was gone, out the door, which closed quietly behind him. Moments later, she heard the jeep's engine rumble to life, then leave the area.

            She sighed, setting the mug down and rubbing her eyes, feeling some of the 'muscles' in her back grip and grind, sending phantom soreness through her. "I'm going to go jump in the hot tub."

            She carried both her and Tek's mugs to the large porch she had that overlooked the city, letting him sit on one of the benches and enjoy his coffee while she switched into a swimsuit and sank into the hot water, closing her eyes, submerging. The heat worked through her partly-synthetic skin, spreading through the tight 'muscles' and driving them to release most of the way. She sighed and came up for air, letting her wet hair down and stretching her arms above her head.

            Tek, having finished his coffee, leapt into the water with a small splash. The hot tub was a large one, and his paws glanced off the bottom before he got to a comfortable spot on one of the submerged benches, laying down as to be mostly under water, letting the hot water work the same magic on him. _So why did you agree to a dinner date with Star Fox's techno geek, anyways?_

            She sank lower in the water. "Damn, I don't know. Just kind of a 'why not' thing. I mean he is a nice guy, Tek."

            _Most guys are nice, even Mark, but I don't see you dating him._

            "I'm not exactly willing to date someone else from D10, besides, it's against regulations."

            _You just don't want to date another cyborg. He replied factually._

            "More true then not." She sighed. "What, got a problem with me going to dinner with a softie?"

            _Nah. I like him. But you're only going to have to break it off because you'll get worried about him finding out about the fact that you don't even have your original body anymore, et cetera, et cetera, and I'll have to listen to you moan about it for a few months until you're stupid enough to do it again._

            "You're out of line."

            _So kill me. We're LINKed. Not like I can avoid knowing what's going on in your head._

            She sighed, closing her eyes and submerging again. She'd be in water again tomorrow, her synthskin being stripped away temporarily, muscles lifted off her reinforced synthetic skeleton to be checked over, mind ran through a scan to make sure everything was in compliance. Just like normal.

            Sometimes, she really missed being a softie. At least softies' bodies didn't come with a warrantee.

  


Chapter Two

            Consciousness came to Nicole's mind, and she kicked to the surface, flinging her hair out of her face. The wet strands whipped around with an almost audible snap, water flying off. She treaded water, pushing her hair back the rest of the way, and kicked over to the side of the maintenance pool, pulling herself out easily. Yes, that was much better, every muscle flowed smoothly.

            Mark handed her a bathrobe, wearing one himself. "All clear?"

            "Yes indeed. Looks like they even got my spots right this time." She shrugged into the robe and didn't bother tying it for a moment, wringing her hair out.

            "Like the red streaks in your hair, by the way."

            "What?" She looked at her reflection in the water, and growled angrily, stomping over to a tech and proceeding to curse him out, waving her hands. He wove his hands around right back, saying that what the hell, it was a minor bug, and at least it wasn't blue or something for god's sake. She sighed, resigned that she'd have red streaks until her next maintenance run, tying her robe and walking back over to Mark. "Get one thing right and screw up something else. Looks like it hit us both, unless you're going blonde."

            He sighed, looking at his reflection. "Yeah, yeah, I noticed. I hope to god they fix this bug before next time, but as the man said, it's better then blue."

            Leaving wet spots as they walked, they retreated to a locker room, gearing back up, him into more military gear her back into casual clothing.

            "So when are you on duty next?" He asked absently, pulling on a shoulder holster and rolling his shoulders, satisfied that his joints no longer clicked and ground.

            "I go on duty in like three days." She admitted. "I'm being called in on that hacker case."

            "I'm already on that. Glad you'll be joining us, we're going to need you. The guy is a god-damn ghost."

            The door nudged open, and Tek came in, still wet from the maintenance pool. _All set?_

            "Yes indeedie." She scratched Tek's ears, glancing at Mark. "I'll see you in a few days then."

            "Sooner probably. Hey, want to spend your last civie night on my boat?"

            "Yeah, sure, if I'm not busy doing something else."

            "Glad to know I rank so high on your priority list."

            She laughed.

            "Date's tomorrow night, eh?" Falco asked, watching Slippy's fingers fly as he answered the e-mail. "So where's she live?"

            "Pine Ridge."

            "Oooo…." He raised his eyebrows. "Lucky you, I think you stumbled upon a girl with money."

            "Not like I care about that, but it does take a pretty penny to hold property in Pine Ridge." Slippy sent the e-mail and sat back, cracking his knuckles. "And why are you so interested anyway?"

            "Never seen you on a date. Ever. Never remember you mentioning a girlfriend. Ever."

            "I'm not exactly popular with girls, for all the obvious reasons."

            "Not obvious to her, apparently."

            "Maybe she doesn't care. She did say she prefers truth over beauty." Slippy crossed his arms. "Just mind your own business, ok?"

            "I can't do that… I mean, come on, if she hurts you I'm charged with the responsibility of kicking her ass or finding someone who will."

            "What?"

            "You're one of my best friends man, it's one of my responsibilities."

            Slippy had to laugh. "I'll take that as a compliment."

            "Do." Falco sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Not like I can give advice in the love department anyways."

            "You never did strike me as a Don Juan."

            "Screw you too."

            "No thanks."

            "What exactly are we discussing, now?" Fox asked, coming onto the bridge.

            "Long story."

            "I'm sure it is."

            'Ready?'

            Tek glanced up at Nicole, wearing a black utility vest buckled around his slim rib cage. _As I'll ever be._

            She got down into a sprinter's position, took a deep breath, and dashed forward, leaping up and forward, soaring into the air and landing on the next roof. Tek backed up and charged forward, body contracting and extending like a spring, shooting into the air and over the gap, landing next to her, the pistons/muscles in his legs taking the impact in stride.

            "Not bad." Nicole chuckled. "How wide was that, thirty feet?"

            _Thirty feet and five inches. Tek reported, glancing at the gap._

            "Thanks for the correction." She stretched out, then started running again, leaping from roof to roof, using grappling hooks when necessary, taking a Batman-style tour of the city. Tek wasn't far behind, claws extending out and hooking to give him better traction.

            Eventually they made it back to her car, dropping into the seats from above, since she had radioed in ahead that they were on their way, and the car had dropped its top in reply.

            "Four in the morning." She sighed, sitting back, counting her pulse absently.

            _And you have a date tonight, shame on you._

            She directed the car home, dragging herself into her house and retreating to bed, flopping down after shrugging out of the paramilitary clothing.

            Tek hopped up on the foot of the bed. _You want out of D10, don't you?_

            "I have practically since I joined." She replied through a yawn.

            _Humph. Too bad they'll take back all your upgrades if you do, and since you're little more then a brain and soul without them, you're kind of stuck._

"And so are you." She looked at him, then curled up on her side and let herself lapse from consciousness with the ease of flipping a power switch.

            Slippy pulled up in front of the house, staring up. It was built into the hillside so the garage was in the basement and the front porch was a story above him, on stilts. Suddenly he felt very thoroughly middle class, but hey, at least his car was recent and in good condition. He went up the walk to what he thought was the front door and rang the bell.

            Nicole answered a few seconds later, surprising him by smiling. "Hey. Sorry, I'm not exactly dressed up, wasn't sure where we are going."

            He was in slacks and a collared shirt. "Toss a skirt on and we'll call it even."

            She grinned and let him in. "Take a look around while I do, I'll give you the guided tour later."

            He did as said, wandering the house, whistling to himself as he noted the original paintings on the wall, the exposed rafters (all the rage and expensive as hell more often then not), the subtle, elegant design of the house. Tek followed him around for most of this absently, even following him onto the porch.

            Nicole joined him a few moments later, in a graceful top and skirt, complete with matching shoes, leaning on the railing beside him.

            "You have a great view." He remarked.

            "It's better at night." She replied with a shrug. "Your car or mine?"

            "Mine I suppose, what kind of car do you have?"

            "NightBlast Special Edition."

            He gaped at her. "You're kidding right?"

            She smiled and led him down to the garage, flipping the lights on.

            "Girl, you must have either a huge allowance or get paid damn well for taking pictures…" He laughed, circling the gorgeous car. "Can we take this instead?"

            "If you drive, I don't feel like driving." She tossed him the rarely-used keys.

            "You got it, babe."

            Slippy sighed, tilting his head back as the cool wind rushed by. The NightBlast drove like a dream, hugging the curves of the winding road that went from Pine Ridge to main Corneria City, easily responding to his commands. The speedometer went to 580 miles per hour, and yet, this car was perfectly street legal.

            He and Nicole did talk a bit as he drove, just minor stuff really. He was still reeling that this was actually happening. Him, in this beautiful car with a beautiful girl. This sort of stuff usually happened to Fox, not him. Of course, not like this was his car, and not like Nicole was his girlfriend. Hell they had ended up on a date because his curiosity had gotten the better of him!

            He glanced at her. In all actuality, her cyber implant was very subtle, invisible unless you knew what to look for. They still hadn't gotten around to talking about it, she didn't seem comfortable with the subject. Well, hell, if she didn't want to talk about it, that was fine by him, he was happy with just cruising down the highway with her in same car as he was.

            "Mind if I turn on the radio?"

            He glanced at her. "It's your car, go ahead."

            She reached over and flipped the radio on easily, going to one of the preset channels. The music that came through the speakers, the bass rumbling, was dance, and as they pulled up to a light, the song changed.

            "Tone Loc. Good tastes." He tapped his fingers on the wheel, nodding along to the beat. "Is this the stock stereo for this car?"

            "Actually, no, it's a Monsoon system's big brother."

            "Damn."

            "So where we going anyways?"

            "I figure I might as well do this right. There's a rather nice restaurant downtown, kind of expensive but not formal. Great food, too. Figured we'd go there."

            "Works for me. You paying or we going Dutch?"

            "I'll pay." He said hastily. "I asked, so I'll pay."

            "Ok then."

            He pulled the car up in front of the restaurant, hopping out and tossing the valet the keys. "Be gentle with it, hmm?"

            The valet nodded, getting in.

            "Valet parking for a non-formal restaurant?"

            "If you had any idea how hard it is to get parking in this area…" He grimaced, then shrugged as they strolled toward the doors.

            "Slippy, is that you? What are you doing here, man?" Cried a new voice.

            He turned, forcing a smile as the rather handsome beagle strode up. "Hey, Chris. How's things?"

            "Can't complain." Chris grinned, turning to Nicole. "Who's your friend?"

            "Nicole, this is Chris Anderson, he's an engineer who works with my father. Chris, this is Nicole Williams. She's a photographer."

            "Nicole Williams, hmm? That name sounds familiar somehow… you did war photography, didn't you?" Chris easily shook her hand, smiling.

            "Yes indeed."

            "Well then, I can say I'm impressed with your work." He turned back to Slippy. "Just checking, but did you really pull up to this place in a NightBlast?"

            He replied by hooking a thumb at Nicole. "It's her car."

            "Ah, that makes sense. Talk to you later buddy." Then he was gone.

            Slippy sighed, holding the door for Nicole. "God, I hate that guy."

            "Oh?"

            "He's an arrogant little jerk. Long as I've known him he's never missed an opportunity to make me aware of my flaws, not like I'm not aware of them."

            "Flaws? Or perceived flaws?"

            He smiled. "Well, let me see. Short, stocky, plain, and my voice only recently finally changed out of a high register. Hell, it's still changing."

            "Flaws are just badly categorized advantages."

            "Flatterer."

            Dinner nicely flowed along, just as Slippy hoped, and he found himself wondering things he had told himself not wonder. Nicole was a very casual conversationalist, and discussions wandered from jobs to recent events to families. Her cyber implant never did come up, but he didn't mind.

            A few hours later they left the restaurant, talking and laughing as the valet pulled the NightBlast up and handed Slippy the keys.

            "Nice car, by the way." The valet remarked. "Don't see too many of those, and I get so sick of beemers…"

            Nicole laughed, hopping into shotgun and putting the top down with a press of the button once Slippy had the car started.

            "So, what now? Want to go home, or should we figure out something else to do? It's still fairly early." He glanced at the clock in the car. "Hey, you've got this on military time."

            "Bad habit from the war." She lied. "Actually, I find it a rather tempting idea to hit a dance club or two."

            "That does sound fun, but with the exception of swing, I can't dance worth anything."

            "I do believe its retro night at Club SuperNova. Problem solved."

            "I'm not sure where that is in comparison to where we are now…"

            "Simple, let up on the gas." When he dubiously did, even though they were in traffic, she leaned closer to him and told the car, "Autodrive on, destination Club SuperNova."

            "Confirmed." Lights came on in the steering wheel, and the car took control of itself.

            "Now, that is smooth." Slippy said admiringly. "How much money did this car cost you anyways?"

            "I don't even remember."

            "All right, then. That's not something I could easily forget…"

            "Let's just say I'm good with money. Hell I think I have some invested in your dad's company even."

            He grinned. "Actually that's not a bad choice. What are you a day trader?"

            "Day trader? Hell, I have a stock broker."

            Tek yawned widely, walking on his hind legs to Nicole's computer and setting his mug on the desk, sitting on the chair and drawing his legs up, sitting normally like a dog. The computer came out of sleep mode quickly, and his paws broke down and opened up, revealing twenty or so thin metal fingers, which flew over the keyboards, bringing up all of Nicole's accounts.

            Nicole was the strong arm in the partnership. Sure, her public face was slender, rather short, and weak looking, but in all actuality she was stronger and tougher then most trained military men, thanks to her cybernetic body. Not to mention she pumped up if she knew she was going into battle. He, meanwhile, worked as her partner, helping to fight but also managing her accounts while she was gone, doing stock trading for her, and making sure all the bills got paid.

            While he typed, a little chime went off in his mind, and D10's central computer came online in his head.

            **So where's Snap out to this time?**

            _She's on a date, believe it or not. Tek rolled his eyes, pausing in his typing and picking up his mug, drinking deeply._

            **With a softy?**

            _You better believe it, buster._

            **Humans.**

            _Yeah, you're telling me, I'm stuck being her therapist AND her book keeper._

            CENCOM laughed to itself. **That is why I'm glad I am what I am.**

            _Oh, you're bored and you know it._

            There was a long pause. **Not currently. There's a hacker trying to get into my systems.**

            _Kick his ass, CENCOM._

            **You know I will… oh… oh, no…**

            _CENCOM?_

            A blast of technogarble hit Tek's mind, almost making him drop his mug. He hastily set it down, rubbing his temples, whole body locked up as he tried to make sense of the mess. _CENCOM!_

            Silence, suddenly, then a single message reached him.

            **No carrier.**

            Slippy laughed, closing the car door and walking Nicole to the door. Inside the house, he could hear Tek barking. "Thanks for a wonderful night, Nicole."

            "No problem, I should be thanking you."

            There was a silent awkward moment, stretched longer because Tek was going absolutely psychotic inside, and Nicole seemed to shrug.

            "Hell with it, like some coffee?"

            "Love some coffee."

            They entered the house, and Tek practically tackled his owner. She yelped, then shouted the "Cut!" command at him, forcing him into calm submission. Then he grabbed her skirt and pulled lightly, then let go and ran to the computer room.

            "Be right back." She said to Slippy, exasperated, following Tek and going online mentally.

            _Finally you get back online! Nicole, CENCOM crashed!_

            'What?!' She looked at her computer, at the error messages flashing there. 'What happened?'

            _I don't know. A hacker I think._

            'Oh, jeez.' She rubbed a hand down her face, leaving the computer room. "I left my computer running while we were gone, and apparently, my server crashed."

            "Ouch. Smart dog."

            "You'd be surprised how smart. Now I really need that coffee." She made a beeline for the kitchen, mind racing. CENCOM had never been hacked, not even by hackers paid to try to break into the system. Never, in six years of existence, had anyone gotten through. Now someone had, and she was willing to bet it was the same hacker she was going on assignment to find.

            She pushed it out of her mind. She was a civie for another 36 or so hours, so she might as well act like one.

            "Well that put a thorough damper on the mood, now didn't it?" Slippy remarked in a light voice, accepting a mug.

            She smiled. "Sorry. No laughing matter, since I do a lot of stuff online."

            _YOU do? Tek looked at her._

            'He doesn't know you're cybernetic, so shaddup.'

            "No believe me, I understand. I spent five hours working on the Great Fox's network once, so I know what a pain in the butt it is when a server goes down."

            There was a long silence.

            "So if I said I wanted to see you again…" He started.

            "I'd say I'd happily agree." She finished for him.

            He smiled. "Really?"

            "Why not?"

            "I'm hardly my commander. I'm not attractive, suave, or anything else. I'm smart and that's about it."

            She shook a finger at him. "Fox does not a thing for me. Let's say I'm attracted to people with great minds."

            He grinned.

            She saw him to the door half an hour later, halfway hugging him by way of goodbye, then retreating inside and going completely online. "Mark?"

            'Yo.' Came his mental reply. 'You hear about CENCOM?'

            "Tek told me when I got home. Apparently he was talking to CENCOM when it crashed."

            'It's bad, Nicole. The network is screwed, the file system is almost nonexistent, and the memory may very well be empty too. Screwed D10 over but good for at least the next six hours, since D10 depends on computers for every little thing, even doors. I mean, whoever did this was really god damn thorough. Be glad we already got maintenance done.'

            "Was it our hacker?"

            'That's the thought, we'll know for sure within two hours. Get some sleep, Nicole, I've got you covered until you're officially on duty.'

            "You sure?"

            'Positive, babe, positive.' Mark signed off.

            "Well, look who's all smiles." Falco said, crossing his arms, watching Slippy jump out of his plane.

            "Why are you still up?" Slippy asked, stretching his arms out, voice cheerful.

            "Do I ever get to sleep on time? No. Besides I wanted to know the outcome of this whole thing. Given how happy you are, I guess I know, eh?"

            "For your information, it was a thoroughly innocent        and very wonderful date, thank you."

            "Innocent AND wonderful?" Falco scratched his head. "That's possible how…?"

            Slippy clod clopped him. "Your loose morals are not my problem. The point is my morals are not loose, and I had a very good time. Dinner, dancing, coffee, and all done with a very pretty girl. Hell she even let me drive her car."

            "What kind of car?"

            "NightBlast Special Edition. No I am not kidding. And she's got the best kick-ass stereo I have ever heard, even beats your ghetto-shaking base setup."

            "So, what, are you still single or are you officially taken?"

            "Single, but she and I are pretty good friends, so who's to know what's going to happen?" He shrugged and smiled. "I mean hey, she's a great girl who sees past all my flaws, so I'm in no hurry to look much further."

            "Good for you." Falco rolled his eyes.

            "If you're not careful, you know, Katt is going to pounce on you and never let go." Slippy remarked.

            "Not if I can help it."

            He laughed and retreated to his quarters, whistling to himself.

            "Boy does he have it bad." Falco shook his head.

            "Have what bad?" ROB asked via one of the speakers in the hall.

            "Nothing, ROB. Why are you active at this hour?"

            "One of the government computer systems I'm networked to went down, and I do mean went down. I've been trying to help reassemble the mess, but no such luck yet."

            "Ouch."

            "Exactly."

  


Chapter Three

            Nicole stretched out, feeling her bones move smoothly. Yoga was nothing to her now, but it made her feel better. Before she had gone cybernetic, she had practiced various forms of martial arts as well as yoga. Now, of course, she had gone through the process of having a few martial arts uploaded to her computer mind as well as trained in them.

            Beside her, Tek also stretched, joints reconfiguring to a bit to allow the stretches, his long fingers out.

            _So what's the plan for the day?_

            She glanced at him. "Today's my last civie day, Tek. I'm going to use it to get ready then I'm going to go boating with Mark."

            _Right. So are you going to date that softy?_

            "I don't know." She stood and walked out to the porch, leaning on the railing, wearing shorts and a sportsbra. The city stretched out in front of her. Her eyes unfocused, seeing the maps overlay with her vision for a second, then she dismissed them.

            _Why the maps?_

            "Just remembering where we went." She shrugged.

            _Oh, come on, you like him. Tek, having followed her out, reared up and hooked his paws over the railing, fingers tapping the wood absently._

            "Yeah, so?"

            He looked at his owner and sighed, one hand gripping her shoulder, leaning his muzzle against hers. She turned and hugged Tek absently, a little whine coming from her throat.

            "I can't let myself become committed to anyone and you know it. Especially a softy."

            _I don't know anything, that's just what you believe._

            She sighed, letting him go and looking back over the city. "Feel like going for a run?"

_Not like it'll do anything to make us fit._ He snorted.

"Yeah but it makes me feel normal."

They went back inside, her grabbing a water bottle, and they left the house, striding down the long winding road toward Corneria City.

            "So what happened with that Government server?" Falco asked, watching ROB do something with the Great Fox's computers.

            "It's still not up." ROB replied. "Looks like they were hacked."

            "Which server?" Slippy asked, skipping in, managing not to splash his coffee everywhere.

            "CENCOM. Hacked and crashed instead of crashed and burned." ROB sighed. "And that was a great source of information too, when CENCOM felt willing."

            "How badly will the crash affect us?" Fox asked, already sitting in one of the chairs on the bridge, tail twitching.

            "Not really. CENCOM does few dealings with us."

            "Fed system?"

            "No, not exactly. CENCOM is the computer system, AI, and server for Division Ten."

            Slippy whistled. "Someone managed to hack Division Ten?"

            "Yes."

            "Wait. Who?" Falco asked.

            "Division Ten. Don't ask us for details." Fox said. "We don't do dealings with D10, and they don't do dealings with us. They're a top-secret sector of the government. Covert black ops, assassinations…"

            "… Crashed alien craft…" Slippy put in with a grin

            Fox laughed out loud. "More likely then not! Division Ten agents are all double 0. No one asks, no one tells, and that's because no one knows. All we've been told is that if some spook shows us a D10 license, we're to do what they say. Not even Pepper's orders can go over D10."

            "Bejesus." Falco shook his head. "A government Division over the entire military? Whuff, it must be top secret stuff."

            "And now their computer has been hacked." ROB said gravely. "Makes you wonder just who the hell did it."

            "Why do you swim, anyway?" Mark asked, sitting against the side of his boat, a beer bottle clasped loosely in one hand, watching as Nicole hauled herself in from the water. Her hair was plastered down, as well as her fur, and the bikini didn't hide much.

            "Why do you ask?" Nicole picked up a towel and began to dry her hair, walking across the boat absently.

            "I mean, you've got a body that sinks like a rock, more or less. If any water got past the skin and sealer layers, you'd practically rust from inside, not to mention short out."

            "I'm not afraid of water, Mark." She looked at him, eyes flashing once. "Are you saying you are?"

            He held up his hands. "No. I don't swim though. I haven't since I made the change to cybertech."

            "I don't see why you worry." She picked up a bottle from the cooler and sat down across from him, towel draped around the back of her neck and across her shoulders. "Our maintenance runs are under water."

            "That's different. It's not even water, exactly." He pointed out. "Besides, we're unconscious during a maintenance run."

            "Thank god for that. Imagine being awake while our skin's removed and our muscles are lifted off our bones."

            "I hear its' happened a few times." He looked at his beer then took a long drink. "When the techies screw up and don't put someone all the way under."

            She shivered, staring off over the water. "Mark?"

            "Yeah babe?"

            "You ever regret the switch?"

            "Hell no, babe. Hell no." He looked across at her. "What were you before you went cyber?"

            "I'm the age I claim to be, Mark. I'm only 19." She sighed and leaned her head back. "I was a really active kid. I had a black belt by fourteen, not to mention the photography. Then, about three years ago, I was in a car accident. Paralyzed, lost everything from the neck down. I'm not sure what made D10 decide to ask me into the fold. My uncle is a D10 agent, though. And here I am."

            "Interesting." He took another drink. "From civie to top secret double 0 in one car accident. I assume you're supposed to dead?"

            "No, I'm continuing on with my life from where I left off. What about you?"

            He chuckled, dropping his head. "I was a cop, and a damn good one."

            "Oh?"

            "Oh yeah. Medals, recognition, the full nine yards. Great cop. Loved my job." He sighed deeply. "Then some nut decided to take a church youth group hostage. I was one of the first on the scene, and I got in and tried to negotiate. I was a good negotiator, too, though wasn't an official one for the force. But the guy was past comprehension, and opened fire." The look in his eyes grew distant. "Two of the kids were killed, four more wounded. Me, well…" He unbuttoned his shirt. Even though he was cybertech, the scars remained, discolored patches of rough fur glaringly obvious. Her eyes flicked over his chest, counting the puncture wounds.

            "He had an automatic, eh?"

            "Street-cut mini Uzi." He undid his shirt the rest of the way and left it open absently, leaning his head back. "Caught me right across the torso, obviously. I remember flying backward through the air. I don't remember anything after that, or at least until I was looking up at bright lights and a few of D10's scientists. They had already done a lot of the conversions. Unlike you, my mind wasn't moved to a new body, this body used to be real once." He looked down at himself. "This skin is my real, living skin."

            She reached a hand over, fingers brushing over his fur.

            "What good cop wouldn't want a second chance, anyway?" He managed a smile, looking back out over the water. "And tomorrow, it's back to work for us."

            "That damn hacker." She sighed. "Is CENCOM back up?"

            "Mostly, but the AI seems brainwashed. Not much is left but a stammering, scared mess. Poor thing is frigging terrified." He sighed.

            "I would be too. So how are we proceeding tomorrow?"

            "They're hard-booting CENCOM… right about now actually." He looked at his watch. "Tomorrow we're going to dive in."

            "You got permission for us to do that?!"

            "Permission, hell, the boss practically begged me. None of the other D10 agents will touch this thing, especially cybertech enhanced agents. The story going around is that this hacker can break into people's BRAINS." He shook off. "Me, I'm going to find that bastard hacker if it kills me."

            "Well, let's hope it doesn't." She clapped hands with him.

            "CENCOM?"

            The computer made a wild attempt at wincing, turning its attention to the people standing before its central terminal. Two people and a dog, it noticed, but it took several moments for its ailing memory to retrieve the right files and identify who they were. "Mark. Snap. Tek. What are you doing here?"

            "We're on the hacker case, CENCOM. The boss gave us permission to do a dive." Nicole reached out a hand and patted the computer's consol gently. Snap was her D10 call sign as well as her media nickname. "We're going to go through with it and find out who hurt you, all right?"

            The computer wanted to tremble, whimper. It managed the latter. "That bastard hurt my mind and my soul, Snap."

            Mark looked at Nicole and raised his eyebrows.

            "We'll help fix you." She said soothingly. "We're going to plug in in just a few minutes. Just try to stay relaxed, all right?"

            "All right." CENCOM watched as they got into the link chairs, Tek laying down and opening the hatch on his back. The techies went through and double checked everything, plugging the cord into Tek, and gave the all clear.

            Mark and Nicole sat back at the same time, the two jacks finding their plugs and going in. Their minds were pulled from their bodies, their perceptions changed, colors swirling. They plunged past a wall of code, and were in CENCOM's mainframe.

            "My god, look at this mess." Mark stepped over a wall of collapsed code. In his mind, he was in a decayed, ruined house.

            Nicole saw a dying, degraded forest. "Jesus. CENCOM?"

            **I'm here.**

            "Give us some directions. Do you remember where it came from?"

            No reply except for fear.

            "Great, it won't be able to help us." Mark sighed, looking at her and gesturing for her to come over to where he stood. "We'll be able to figure this mess out on our own though, the hacker left a trail a mile wide."

            She joined him, and gaped, putting her hands on her hips. The forest, already degraded, had a huge swath taken out of it. "Looks like a tornado hit."

            "Yes, it does."

            Tek trotted up to join them. _Someone's been busy._ He remarked. _Let's get moving._

            "You think the hacker would make a second run?" Mark asked as they walked, striding down the carved swath. In reality, they were going through ruined code, putting the pieces together a bit and tracking the hacker back to his entry point. In their minds, they were following the destruction path of a tornado.

            "I doubt it. Lightning never does hit the same place twice."

            "You know, this is a very bad idea." Peppy remarked, sipping coffee. "Nosing around in D10's business."

            "Probably." Fox said. "But we aren't. We're looking at the information available and we're not digging up any more. We're just trying to figure out what's going on."

            "When D10 catches us, I'm blaming you, squirt."

            ROB sighed, listening to the other AIs talking on their private channel. Since he was one, he was of course allowed, but he was a cruiser computer. Some of the AIs on this channel were so top-secret they weren't even supposed to be there, but now they were, and dozens of worried computer voices rose. CENCOM had had the tightest security known, and it had been hacked and crashed? If they all had inferior technology compared to CENCOM and CENCOM went down so easy, didn't it just put them in more immediate danger?

            "What would someone gain from crashing D10?" ROB suddenly asked aloud.

            His team turned and looked at him.

            "D10 is the best. They will find the hacker. I guarantee that. The only reason anyone would risk hacking CENCOM is to delay them on a mission or something, and the missions they handle are top-notch. Like what's been said, we're talking assassinations and so on here. So what could someone gain by hacking D10?" He turned to look at the Star Fox team. "If they're the right person, everything."

            "The hack was from an orbiting ship called the Ghost Avenger." Said Nicole, sitting up, the cords going with her as she did. She reached back and unplugged the jacks, dropping the cords. Mark also sat up. "Which has since landed and is docked right here in Corneria City."

            "Well, well. Right nearby." Said their boss. "What planet is the Ghost Avenger registered with?"

            "Katina, supposedly, but the make isn't Cornerian or Katinan from the holo I saw." Said Mark, glancing at Nicole.

            "It's a converted Venomian shuttle." She said grimly. 

Mark stood, stretching out of habit. "Ready to go, Nicole?"

            "Yes indeed. May we handle this as usual, boss?"

            "You have full reign."

            Tek unplugged, and the trio left to get their gear.

            "Man, why is the docking port so busy?" Falco asked, looking out the view ports as the Great Fox touched down in its designated port. "Lucky us we have one reserved."

            "A lot of ships are coming down. What with the story going around that CENCOM got hacked, a lot of AIs are scared. In other words, the exact same reason we're here." ROB sighed. "Thank you, guys."

            "No problem." Fox patted the robot on the shoulder. "Stay safe."

            "Jesus this would be so much easier if the ships had stayed in geosynthis orbit…" 

Nicole growled, crouching on the edge of a rooftop, a standard-issue tech rifle in her hands. She was practically nude except for boots and slender pieces of metal armor, along with a band around her head. Mark crouched beside her, wearing urban camouflage and carrying a 'big gun' from his personal armory.

            "Probably. Like the outfit."

            "Never seen Cortek armor in use?" She looked at him.

            "You owe me big time for being a good boy, that's all I know." He grinned. "Yeah, I know what Cortek armor is."

            "Well you get to see it in full force real quick here." She stood, looking at the metal that wrapped one forearm and tapping a button.

            Like a ripple in water, a thin fiber extended from the metal pieces, hugging her skin and coming down in a veil from the headband. Wiggling her fingers in the newly formed gloves, she tapped a button again, and disappeared. The tech rifle, rigged to be used with Cortek armor, also disappeared.

            'Good luck, Nicole.' Mark thought, seeing her shadow flicker away as she leapt off the roof and glided the six stories down easily.

            'Good luck, yourself.' She replied as she touched down practically silently, slipping in between ships, working her way toward the Ghost Avenger. As she ran, Tek slipped out from under one of the parked ships and ran alongside her, also wearing a form of Cortek armor, which also stretched across a set of guns that were mounted across his shoulders. Once he fired the first time, his cover would be ruined, but until them, he was invisible.

            'So it is converted Venomian?' Mark asked, leaping down and landing on top of a parked ship, then running and leaping to another, working his way around back of the Ghost Avenger.

            'Looks like it. Not so strange, a lot of kids salvage Venomian planes and race rig them. Dangerous practice of course, but it still goes on.' She paused in her walking and stepped under a ship ramp, hiding her shadow, as a group of pilots drifted by. She watched them with a smile, knowing they couldn't see her, then moved on her way, padding up the ramp of the Ghost Avenger. 'Door's locked down.'

            'Well, take care of it.'

            It was an extending door, probably dropped down from the top. She took out a plasma knife and drew it along the top of the door, then sheathed the knife. Counting to three, she leapt and kicked forward.

            The door flew inward, and she and Tek walked in, both ready to fire.

            "Attention anyone on board. Division Ten agents have boarded this ship and have taken control of it." She said, voice loud as if spoken from a megaphone. "Do not struggle or attempt to run."

            Silence answered her. She sighed, turning off the invisibility setting on the Cortek armor and walking down the corridor.

            "Who the hell is Division Ten… oh my god, thank you for blessing me." Said a voice, and a teenage boy appeared, leaning out one of the doors, jaw dropping, then wincing when he saw the rifle train on him perfectly. "Hey, hey… Easy, lady…" He put up his hands. "What'd I do?"

            "Someone on this ship hacked CENCOM computer systems." She replied, stepping forward and pressing the barrel of the gun to the bottom of his chin. "Is there anyone else on board?"

            "Sure, a couple of my friends."

            "Names!"

            He blinked, then frowned. "Shouldn't I have a lawyer when I talk to you? I mean I am hung over, but I still got some common sense."

            She dug the gun in. "I'm not a cop, I'm a Division Ten agent. If I say my finger slipped, my finger slipped."

            He looked down at the gun, saw her finger on the trigger, and audibly gulped. "My name's Daniel. Daniel Watters. My friends and I are from Katina, we're here visiting friends in college."

            "Has anyone been online?"

            "Sure, all of us… e-mail and such…" He smiled sheepishly. "Oh, no, you're going to look at the history files aren't you… aw jeez, there's some embarrassing web addresses in there, and I swear to god I wasn't the one that went to them…"

            She dug the gun in harder. "Not just online. Is anyone on board a hacker?"

            He blinked. "No. We're all computer students, but…" He looked past her.

            She had already heard the hiss of another door opening, and held the rifle on Daniel while pulling a handgun and aiming in the direction of the noise. "Hands up, whoever you are." She said, looking toward the door.

            The raccoon blinked. "Daniel?"

            "She's from some Division… Division Ten. She thinks one of us is a hacker." Daniel told him, shutting up at Nicole's look.

            The raccoon blinked, and bolted.

            Cursing, Nicole swung the gun, knocking Daniel down, and took off after the raccoon. "TEK! ACTION!"

            The Doberman shed its armor and came from nowhere, tripping the raccoon and tackling him, teeth ripping into the raccoon's arm. The raccoon screamed, pulling a .32 from somewhere on his person and firing at Tek. Tek yelped, the noise high pitched and grating on Nicole's mind, staggering back. The raccoon lurched to his feet and kept running.

            She strode after him, reactivating the invisibility on her armor. When he looked over his shoulder and saw no one was there, he stopped, gun trembling as he looked around.

            She hit him from behind with the butt of the rifle, and he crumbled. "You ok, Tek?" She asked, turning the invisibility back off.

            _I am, but my guns are shot. The Doberman limped up, having shaken off the gun setup. _I think one of my piston lines was punctured.__

            "We'll get it fixed." She guaranteed, looking up as Mark landed a few feet away.

            "Crazy bastard." Mark said looking down at the unconscious raccoon. "You get a look at his eyes?"

            "Yeah. He's been mind hacked." She shook her head. "Poor bastard. Probably didn't even know what he was doing."

            "Check out this circus, would you." Falco sighed, looking at the fluttering police tape as the team walked by. It was early evening, and the sun had just gone down.

            Slippy's eyes fluttered over the many reporters, cops, agents, and thus forth, and spotted someone he knew. "Nicole?"

            She had already gotten back in civilian gear, retrieved her camera from her car, and was floating around, Tek pacing her, leg bandaged. It turned out that while his piston line was damaged, it wasn't fully punctured and could wait to be repaired until a more convenient time. She looked up when she saw him. "Hey, Slippy. What are you doing here?"

            "The Great Fox touched down. What are you doing here?"

            "Same thing as always." She held up her camera and managed a strained smile.

            "Hey, Tek, what happened to you?" He asked, crouching down and scratching the dog's ears.

            _If only you knew, kid._

            "Long story, but it's nothing horrible." She managed another smile.

            "Nicole?" Mark walked up, also in civilian clothing. Slippy's glance toward the muscular coyote wasn't a happy one, and after a moment his gaze returned to Nicole, manner changing.

            "Hey Mark. I assume you've heard of the Star Fox team." She glanced at Slippy. "This is Mark. We work together sometimes."

            Introductions went around, and Slippy visibly relaxed.

            _Boy, you are not going to get rid of him easily. Tek remarked, looking up at Nicole. She ignored him._

            "So, what's going on? Or does anyone know?" Falco asked, hooking his thumbs into the pockets of his jeans.

            "A hacker got caught." She shrugged, brushing her hair back, feeling tired. "Listen, I've got to go, I'm tired as anything."

            "Hey, all right."

            She lifted a hand, touching her implant, and somewhere an engine rumbled. A few moments later her NightBlast slid through the crowd and stopped in front of her, driving itself. She put the top down and hopped over the door, Tek also hopping in.

            Fox, Falco, and Peppy were all looking at Slippy, who looked back and shrugged. Falco made a 'well, go for it' gesture, Slippy glared, then shrugged again and stepped over to the car, leaning on it. "Too tired for me to tag along?"

            She looked at him, then sighed. "What the hell. Tek, get in back." The dog got in back, and she gestured. "Get in, hot shot."

            He laughed and went around the car, getting in shotgun. "If you don't want me to come, you don't have to invite me…"

            "Nah, that's ok. I need someone to talk to."

            The other three watched the NightBlast speed away, and exchanged a glance.

            "Well, about time eh?" Peppy said with a small smile.

            "Yeah, about time." Fox agreed.

            "Autodrive on, home." Nicole sagged back in the driver's seat and covered a yawn. "So, just wanting to hang out? I'm not going to be very good company."

            "Kind of, the guys prodded me into asking." He chuckled to himself. "And hey, you said you needed someone to talk to."

            "True." She sighed.

            There was a long moment of silence.

            "So, any reason you looked at Mark like that?"

            He laughed to himself again, this time it was embarrassed. "Sorry. Didn't really realize I was…"

            "Sure you did."

            He spread his hands. "I like you. I guess it's a guy thing, you know, he's encroaching on my territory even though it's technically not my territory yet. Sorry, I'm not meaning to act possessive in any way. I'm not all that experienced with dating or anything near it. Girls see right through me."

            "That's because the grand majority of girls are bimbos." She grumbled. In her head, Tek laughed.

            "Hate to say, but on some levels I agree."

            More silence as the NightBlast started down the long winding road to Pine Ridge.

            "Ever heard of Division 10?" He asked.

            "Actually yes." She replied carefully. "There were Division 10 spooks on the scene we just left."

            "Not surprised. Their server got hacked, or so we heard."

            _You can't tell him anything. Tek said, sticking his head through the gap between the seats. __Hell girl you can't even tell him what you are._

            "Autodrive, destination change." She said suddenly. "Andrews Park, north side."

            "A park?" Slippy scratched his head.

            "I need to relax." That and she had suddenly recalled she had left some of her guns out in the living room.

            Five minutes later the car pulled into the parking lot and shut down. She got out and moved to lean on the hood absently, hugging herself.

            "What's wrong?" He moved to lean next to her, glancing at her. She remembered interviews with him shortly after the war, and his voice had dropped, now in a pleasant tenor range.

            "It's a long story."

            "Most things seem to be with you." He noted.

            Tek hopped out of the car and wandered off, well within hearing distance but finding a patch of grass to stretch out on.

            "Does that bother you?" She looked at him.

            "Hey, I like some mystery in my life." He smiled.

            She looked away, ducking her head. God she hated this. She had to push him away now while she still could without hurting him too bad. He was a softy, and she was cybertech, a D10 agent. She couldn't tell him what she was or what she did for a living. She couldn't even explain about the implant without lying. "Are you sure about that?" She finally asked.

            His smile fell. "Sure, I'm sure. Why wouldn't I be?"

            She didn't reply.

            "Nicole?"

            No answer.

            He moved so he could see her face. "If something's going on you can tell me. You can trust me."

            "I can't tell anyone anything, sorry. When I say it's a long story, I mean it."

            _Good move. Tek said. __Now, when the rest of his team hears this, the background check will commence._

            She turned away from him and walked away, sitting down next to her dog with a sigh. He trailed after her, concerned, caring, and curious. She turned her face away from him.

            "I'm sorry I can't tell you anything, Slippy."

            "I told you you can trust me." He crouched on his toes next to her. "What more do I need to say?"

            She started to speak, then Tek stiffened under her hand, ears perking up, a growl seeping from his throat. Moments later the voices reached them, drunken, laughing male voices.

            "Teen partiers, probably." Said Slippy, standing. "Come on, we can go somewhere else."

            She didn't move, and behind them her car's headlights came on, then the brights, sending light pouring across that section of the park. The owners of the voices shielded their eyes, shouting out in surprise.

            "Hey, what's with the spotlights?" One asked, rubbing his watering eyes, then was able to focus on Nicole. "Oh, hey baby."

            "Drunk and stupid." Slippy muttered under his breath, then stepped forward. "Leave her alone, gentlemen." He said primly, glaring at the small group. There were five of them, college students by the looks. They looked at him and laughed, shaking their heads.

            "We're not doing anything, and what can you do anything about it anyway?" Said a second, swaggering up and looking down at Slippy.

            "I'm Military, for your information."

            During this, Nicole had stood up as Tek did, one hand touching Tek's back. "Gentlemen, please leave."

            "Hey, baby, we're not doing anything. Was going to ask you to come along with us though, we're on our way to another party…"

            Tek's hackles went on end, and he started growling. The college students backed up a step.

            "This dog has been attack trained, gentlemen…"

            Suddenly Tek looked away, staring off toward the trees.

            "Don't look like it to me." The first one laughed.

            "Let me handle this, Nicole…" Slippy started.

            _I smell guns, Snap. Tek used her call sign to catch her attention. _I smell… really… big… guns…__

            She turned toward the trees, red laser slights flashing over her eyes, doing a quick scan. Oh yeah, big guns. Really big guns. 

            Her senses hyperfocused, again and again, and she heard the fingers come down on the triggers. "GET DOWN!" She yelled, shoving everyone over and lunging, rolling across the grass. The spray of bullets went over the dazed college students, and Slippy yelped in surprise.

            "How did you know?" Slippy shouted over the roar of the guns.

            "Tek smelled the gunpowder!" She shouted back, getting ready to move.

            "But how…" He started.

            "Keep those drunken idiots down, understand?" She reached out and yanked him closer so they were practically nose to nose.

            "Yeah, I will, but…" He was confused. He was going through his training, building a plan. He was military and he thought she was a civilian. The fact that she was telling him to stay put and keep his head down was confusing him.

            The headlights in her car clicked off, sending everyone into darkness, and she started moving, up like a flash, lasers in her eyes coming to life. Tek also surged up, and they went in opposite directions. She tossed her windbreaker off, arms pumping, leaping up and grabbing a tree branch, swinging up into the leaves as her vision shifted and melted into infrared. She counted eight crouched in the trees, three of which were cybertech enhanced. Not stopping to wonder, she dropped on top of them from above, grabbing one and swinging, sending a jarring kick across the jaws of three others. "TEK! ACTION!"

            Tek came from nowhere and landed on top of another, jaws accurately finding and crushing the guy's throat, long hooked talons ripping in. Blood sprayed, and he leapt to his next victim.

            It was over in minutes. She stood there, now only in blood-splattered khakis and an equally splattered tank top, surrounded by unconscious or dead forms, sprawled in various forms around the ground. Her scans yielded no more enemies, but she kept scanning, sending a report to Mark, who relayed it on to the rest of D10.

            "N-Nicole?"

            She looked up, almost ready to go into combat mode again, but then she remembered and dropped her vision out of infrared. It was Slippy, standing there stunned. It was dark and he couldn't see too well, but he could see well enough.

            "I…. I thought you were a civilian…" He said, voice weak.

            She only looked at him and moaned.

            _Well, great. I think by regulation, you've got to kill him now. Tek moved forward on three legs, already injured leg tucked up to his chest. _And I like him, too. By the way, my piston line went, so my leg is kaput until fixed.__

            "Are you special forces?" He stepped closer.

            "No, don't come closer to me Slippy." She finally managed to say, voice coming out a bit rough and mechanical. She noticed it and corrected the problem. "Stay where you are."

            "Nicole…" His eyes were wide and helpless.

            She wanted very, very badly to cry. "I wasn't on the crime scene earlier to take pictures, Slippy."

            "Then why… Oh… oh god… that's… that's how you talk to Tek…"

            "I'm a D10 spook." She confirmed. "And I've got to get you out of here before my cohorts decide to wipe that wonderful mind of yours…" Relaying a message to Mark, she sprang into action, grabbing his arm and yanking him to her car, Tek following. "What happened to the college idiots?"

            "Took off the minute the guns stopped firing, I didn't stop them, I was too busy watching…"

            "Watching me slaughter them." She dumped him in shotgun, getting in. "HOME, autodrive, fast as possible." The car sped backwards and turned, flooring it and speeding toward Pine Ridge.

            He looked at her. "D10 would kill me, wouldn't they? To prevent me from telling anyone?"

            "Or brainwash you, either way." She replied grimly.

            "And what would they do to you for protecting me?"

            "You do not want to know."

            "Then why are you?"

            She looked at him, and closed her eyes, bowing her head. The tears came, very slowly. "Because I like you."

            Tek sighed. _The fit has hit the shan._

            She couldn't agree more.

  


Chapter Four

            'Girl, you're nuts, you are going to get in so much trouble…' Mark said in her head as she burst into her house, Tek striding around to make sure it was unbothered.

            'Just try to find out who was trying to kill me.' She snapped at him. 'I know what I'm doing.'

            'Some gratitude you show, girly.' He signed off mentally.

            "Nice firearms." Slippy remarked in a distant voice, looking at the guns around the living room. "Now WONDER we didn't come here."

            "No kidding." She said in a voice laced with sarcasm, returning the guns to their hidden cabinet.

            There was a long moment of silence.

            "You're a member of D10?" He finally asked.

            She burst into tears and sat down on the floor, hugging herself and rocking. He made a bewildered noise, and moved to kneel next to her, slowly hugging her to his chest, trying to sooth her.

            "I'm sorry…" He whispered, smoothing her hair. "I didn't mean…"

            "No it's my fault… listen, I'm going to tell you some stuff, and keep your beliefs open. I'm going to tell you about myself." She pushed away from him and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand.

            "Well, there goes the mystery."

            "Too bad, it might just save your life." She stood. "Tek, I need a knife."

            The dog went to the kitchen, reared, and pulled one of the sharp kitchen knives with its teeth, carrying it back. _You're not seriously going to do this, are you? There are easier ways to show you're cybertech. Easier and much less painful ways._

            "Quiet, Tek. I know, I know. But hey, short, sharp shock." She looked at Slippy, holding the knife, and showed her lower arm, then drew the knife along her arm lengthwise from her elbow to her wrist.

            "Hey, HEY!" He cried, lunging to stop her from cutting.

            "Relax." She said in a sharp, mechanical-edged voice. "The blood is nothing. In five minutes the cut will not be there. Do you have a weak stomach?"

            "Um, no…"

            "Good." She dropped the bloody knife on the coffee table and pulled her skin back, wiping away the oozing blood. "Tell me what you see."

            He made himself look, and his jaw drop. "You're…"

            "I am cybertech." She confirmed. "Completely, and utterly, cybertech. Only my mind remains, and not even much of that." She let the cut close, feeling the nanotech go to work closing the wound.

            "And Tek?" He looked at the Doberman.

            Tek reared to his hind legs and held out his good paw, which unfolded into the ten fingers.

            "My god." Slippy fell backwards and landed hard on the couch, looking faint.

            Tek folded his fingers back in and went to make coffee, sensing that everyone present was going to need it.

            "So Mark is…?"

            "… Another D10 agent." She finished for him. "Not quite as cybertech as me, but almost on par. We're on the same assignment, to catch that hacker. We haven't caught him yet. Those poor boys on that ship were just pawns, brain hacked."

            "Good god." Slippy rubbed his large eyes. "What have I gotten myself into?"

            "Relax, I'm going to try to protect you. You're correct in thinking that my agency would kill you. They would. Or brainwash you. But a mind is a horrible thing to waste, don't you think?" She shook off, and managed a ragged, tired smile. "And as I said, I like you."

            "Is that why you were acting so funny? You were thinking something along the lines that you'd have to ditch me in the dust because you're a cyborg?" He lifted an eyebrow.

            "Yeah something like that." She sat down next to him, fighting the urge to cry again.

            He saw it and gathered her close, rubbing her back. He had just seen her open her arm and show him what was beneath her skin. He had just seen her metal bones, her wire-laced synthetic muscles that were woven around a few slender pistons. But she felt very alive and very soft in his arms, certainly not like a living robot.

            She resisted for a few seconds, then went limp and let the tears come. He didn't ask questions; just let her cry herself out, rubbing her hair and back, rocking her a bit.

            Tek came in, walking on his hind legs, carrying three coffee mugs in one hand, the other arm still tucked up to his chest. _You ok, Snap?_

            'No.' She mumbled mentally, face buried in Slippy's shoulder.

            _Hope you're comfortable at least. Here, I made you both mugs of coffee. He set two of the mugs within reach on the coffee table. _We going to get my leg fixed tomorrow?__

            'Yeah, I promise.' 

            _Good. Still carrying his mug, he left the room._

            "You know I really like that dog of yours, I just wish I knew what he was saying." Slippy complained.

            "You can't hear him, that's all." She replied. "If you ever get an implant, you'll be able to."

            "Well, the next time Fox gives us a bonus after whenever our next mission is, I'll be sure to get one." 

            They stayed like that for a long time, then he felt her completely relax, apparently asleep. He slowly shifted so he leaned against the arm of the couch, swinging his legs up to more comfortable positions and slowly moving so she lay across his lap and chest, in his arms. This was a delightful thing to get used to… He managed to reach his coffee, letting her lay there for over an hour without moving.

            "Tek, you still awake?" He finally called quietly, hoping the dog's sharp ears would pick him up.

            A few moments later the Doberman appeared, loping into the room, and rose an eyebrow at the position his owner had ended up in. Slippy did a double-take, yep, the dog had raised an eyebrow all right…

            "I wish to god that I could hear you, but I'm not sure what to do about this. She should be in bed. I mean, it's ok for ME to crash on the couch, but…"

            Tek held up a finger, leaving the room, coming back with some sort of collar in his mouth. He sat down across from Slippy, fingers unfolding and putting the collar on. Seconds later, a laugh flowed out of the dog's mouth.

            "Better?" Tek asked, eyes sparkling.

            "Much." Slippy blinked at him. "Why are you laughing at me?"

            The dog nearly fell over. "Sorry, it's just… you're what, nineteen? And you can't figure out how to handle the fact that a pretty girl is practically laying on top of you?"

            "So sue me, I don't have much experience with girls, and I like I said, she should be in bed."

            "You can move her. She's not going to wake up, she's gone into shutdown. Nothing short of violence will wake her up."

            "I'll take your word I guess." He slowly moved so he could stand, shifting her in his arms, and stood, cradling her against his chest. She wasn't too heavy, and for his bulk he was mostly muscle thanks to lifting weights and doing heavy maintenance. "So, lead the way."

            Tek strode down the hallway, rearing from all fours to open a door, leading him into a bedroom. He took a glance around, the room's décor matched the rest of the house. Cradling her one-armed, he pulled the blankets down, settled her down on the bed, and pulled the blankets up to cover most of her, brushing a hand over her hair slowly.

            "You poor guy." Tek remarked, following him back out of the bedroom and closing the door.

            "Why do you say that?"

            "You like a cyborg."

            He stopped and looked at the Doberman. "So, cyborgs don't date folks like myself eh?"

            "We call you softies, and no, not normally, because our kind of cyborg is paid for in full by our Division, and hey, that's top secret stuff." Tek sniffed.

            Slippy flopped back down on the couch and stretched lazily, looking up at the ceiling. "Are we safe here?"

            "Yes. Besides, most soldiers wouldn't be able to match me, but that's when I'm not injured." The last part was added somewhat darkly.

            "I saw you favoring the leg. Biological or mechanical difficulty?"

            "Mechanical, a broken piston line."

            "Let me see."

            Tek eyed him, then limped over to the couch and sat, holding up his bandaged leg. Slippy undid the bandage, moving so he could see the wound. "That's not bad…"

            "They'll have to open my skin to replace it, that line runs the length of my leg."

            "Ouch. You know if I had the right stuff, I could erk out a repair job that would hold until you could get this fixed."

            Tek eyed him again. "It doesn't include bobby pins and electrical tape, does it?"

            "No, but I would have to open the cut a little more."

            "Your stomach is cast-iron." Tek declared, sitting back a bit.

            "Nah. I've run a lot of maintenance on a lot of machines. You're a complex one, but the theories still stand true. Now if I list some stuff off, could you see if they're available to be used?"

            Nicole yawned and stretched slowly, sitting up, then blinked. She was in bed. She remembered falling asleep on the couch…

            The door opened, and Tek poked his head in. "Morning." His voice came out of his mouth, he was wearing his amp collar.

            "Morning. Come on in. Slippy still here?"

            "Yeah. Guy makes a good omelet." Tek slid the rest of the way in.

            "Hey, you're walking on all fours. I thought…"

            "Guy makes a good omelet, AND knows enough about machines and thus forth he was able to work out a patch for my piston line." Tek grinned, showing his full compliment of metal teeth. "Girl, you had better keep him."

            "TEK!"

            He laughed. "Sorry, I had to say it, because I'm completely serious. He may be a softie, but by god, he's a good one."

            She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Right, right. I hope he didn't hear that…" She pushed off the bed, combing her fingers through her hair. She was still in the blood-splattered clothing. After changing into clean clothes, she left the bedroom, following her nose to the kitchen.

            "Morning." A voice cheerfully greeted her. "What do you like in your omelet? Tek and I have been trying to make intelligent guesses… I made coffee too, and OJ."

            "You're a morning person aren't you?" She sat down at the bar part of the kitchen counter, looking across it at Slippy.

            "Afraid so." He admitted. "Always have been. So what do you want in your omelet?"

            She blinked, then her brain picked up on the idea of food. "What's available?"

            "Well…"

            Fifteen minutes later she was digging into a plate laden with bacon, omelet, and hash browns, laughing to herself. She certainly hadn't been expecting this when she had hauled Slippy here last night.

            "I told you you should keep him." Tek remarked, forgetting about the collar.

            "Oh, _really?_" Slippy drawled, looking over his shoulder as he did the dishes. "I hope that you don't mean as prisoner and slave."

            She moaned and rubbed her eyes. "Tek, you are in so much trouble."

            "Keep me?" Slippy dried his hands and stepped over, leaning on his side of the counter, looking at her and lifting an eyebrow.

            "It was his idea." She poked at her Doberman.

            "I'm sure it was." He grinned, leaning across the counter and snitching a piece of bacon. "So, now that I know what you guys are, what happens now?"

            "I'm not sure." She admitted. "It's not like this was part of a careful plan. It was an impulse."

            "And an impulse I'm glad for, I don't need my memory wiped."

            "Fox?"

            "Yeah, ROB?" Fox paused in mid-lift, working out in the Great Fox's weight room. They were still touched down, but even as he said that he felt the ship's engines fire to life, lifting. "ROB, what's going on?"

            "There is a problem. We have to evac this landing spot and go to orbit." The robot's voice sounded strained.

            "What happened?" Fox set the weight bar back on the cradle and sat up, swinging off the bench press and sprinting to the bridge.

            "A ship which had started its descent was hacked. It's still descending, still heading for here, but it's not slowing down."

            "JESUS!" Fox swung into his seat on the bridge. "Any word from Slippy?"

            "None."

            The other two team members came onto the bridge as the Great Fox floored it, shooting away from the airport.

            "How big of a ship… oh my god." Peppy said, staring out. "That's a Dominion Class cruiser."

            "Crew of a few thousand at least, and that's skeleton." Fox said grimly, watching as dozens of fighters and escape pods evacuated from the descending cruiser. "ROB, will the computer answer?"

            Pause. "No, no reply, no carrier signal."

            "Could our tractor beams take that much weight?" Falco asked thoughtfully, rubbing his chin.

            "In space, but with the momentum of a descending cruiser…" ROB replied. "But if I wired all power to my retros, maybe…."

            "We've got to try at least. Its main engines are still firing. Falco, you come with me, we're going to take out that ship's engines, slow it down. ROB, how much time we got?" Fox took charge.

            "Two, three minutes at the most."

            "All right, keep us posted."

            Thirty seconds later the Arwings were launched and attacked the Cornerian cruiser, ripping into the engines, which fifteen seconds after initially being attacked stopped firing. To keep from falling like a rock, the cruiser engaged its retro rockets. The Great Fox, meanwhile, had come in behind the cruiser, and as soon as Fox and Falco were out of the way, turned on the tractor beam.

            The lance of energy and magnetism got a hold of the slowly falling ship. The cruiser was bigger, however, and pulled the Great Fox down with it. ROB rerouted all engine power to retro rockets, which would normally have shot the Great Fox backwards with enough force to give his personnel whiplash and nosebleeds, but now it just slowed down their fall, allowing the tractor beam to get a better grip on the cruiser.

            The cruiser still crashed, since its landing gear wasn't out, but it crashed across two empty landing pads for minimal damage to both the landing pads and the cruiser. The Great Fox touched back down at its reserved pad, like nothing had happened.

            'Let me in, Nicole.'

            Nicole, deep in discussion with Slippy, held up a finger and went to the front door, letting Mark in. "What news?"

            "Not much. D10 is seething, but not because of you. The current theory is that one of the other Divisions attacked us." He shrugged helplessly.

            "Why would they do that? And why would they DARE do that? We're the best outfitted of any Division." She crossed her arms.

            "You got me, babe." He looked at Slippy. "So how much do you know?"

            "Too much, according to you. Not enough, according to me." Slippy replied. "Nicole filled me in some, I know you're cybertech, so don't worry about that. Not that I care. So, you guys are after a ghost hacker."

            "Yes indeed. What, do you want to help?"

            "Actually… yes."

            Nicole gave him a surprised look. "Slip, we're cybertech and we can barely do anything to stop this person, so what can you do?"

            He looked thoughtful. "Can I use your phone?"

            "Go ahead, but if you're calling your team, be careful what you say, or I'll kill you myself." Said Mark flatly. Nicole scowled at him.

            He left them to talk, picking up Nicole's cordless phone and going out on the porch, calling Fox's cell phone. It was several rings before Fox picked up.

            "Yeah, McCloud."

            "Fox, it's me."

            There was a pause, then Fox said, "Slippy, kudos to your date, but where in all hell are you?" Falco was laughing in the background. "Another ship was hacked this morning, and very nearly crash landed on top of us and a lot of other ships. It was a Dominion Class cruiser."

            "Damn! I imagine you took care of it?"

            "Yes indeed. So where are you?"

            "Currently, at Nicole's house."

            There was some muffled speech, and Falco grew even more obnoxious in the background.

            "But before you go jumping to conclusions… someone tried to kill her and I last night."

            Silence, then Fox said, "You sure?"

            "We're talking chain guns here. Yes I'm sure. Listen, I can't tell you much, but I think I've landed in the middle of a D10 operation. I'll try and keep you posted with what I can, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to come back."

            "D10?!?! Slippy, you need to get yourself out of there… D10 isn't known for treating nosy people well…"

            "Let's just say I've got the right people on my side." Slippy looked over his shoulder, looking through the glass to where Mark and Nicole were talking. "Don't worry about me, all right?"

            "Christ you know I will, I've got a team member up to his neck in top secret bull, of course I'm going to worry."

            "Just relax ok? Out." Slippy hung up and went back inside.

            "All taken care of?" Nicole asked, watching him hang the cordless up.

            "I won't tell you what they strongly suspected." He replied, shaking his head. "When I get back on board that ship, Falco's magazines are going into the incinerator."

            Mark started laughing. "So I imagine you heard about the little fiasco with the Dominion Class ship that your teammates managed to get in the way of?"

            "Yeah, but I'm worried. They interfered with something the hacker was doing, doesn't that target them?"

            "Yes, we do believe so." Nicole said soberly. "But that also means that we have a chance to catch the hacker in action. ROB has already agreed to put an alarm out to us if anything happens, but I doubt he's told the team members that."

            "I doubt he would. He might have told me, since I helped build the cruiser and what not, but…" Slippy shrugged. "So are you guys going to let me help you or what?"

            The two cyborgs exchanged a look and a quick mental discussion. Slippy knew the Great Fox inside out, mechanics and programming. If the hacker was going to hit the Great Fox, it would be Slippy who would be able to figure out how…and how to stop it. And since his mind wasn't partly mechanical (and therefore safe against hackers, at least most hackers), all the better.

            "Do we have a choice?" Mark finally asked.

            Slippy looked around curiously as the group walked. They were at D10's headquarters, and he found himself with a million questions. Were all of these people cybertech? Were they all agents? But he stayed silent and kept moving.

            Some of the agents eyed him warily, then turned their gazes to Nicole and Mark, but no questions were asked or answered. Everyone in the building knew he was a civilian, and knew who he was. They didn't like his presence much.

            They eventually turned into an office.

            Nicole and Mark's boss was waiting for them. "Well, bring a civilian into the building. You DO know what the reprimand is, right?" This was said to the two cyborgs.

            "First of all, he's military, and second of all, he can help us. I need your permission to let him fully in on the hacker case." Nicole said bluntly.

            "HE can help? Oh really?"

            "We believe the Great Fox to be the next target."

            Long silence as the boss eyed Slippy. "Granted. He's your responsibility, Snap."

            "You got it." And that quick, they were leaving again. Slippy's mind spun. "Slippy I want to mind jack you into CENCOM. You're a programmer, you can help put the thing back together some and maybe pick up some things we can't. It's a fairly safe process."

            He stared at her. Suddenly, his friend—his girlfriend?—was all business, striding down the hall and into another room. He found himself staring at a huge mainframe, and he knew he was looking at the core of CENCOM. He saw two chairs already there, then saw the wires trailing out of the neck parts.

            "I'll jack in with you." She continued, putting out a mental call for a biotech doctor to come to CENCOM's mainframe. "We've got to catch this bastard hacker, Slippy. I'm depending on your ability to help us."

            He blinked at her. "Um. Ok."

            The biotech doctor arrived and set about rigging a link for him even though he didn't have the ports in his neck, having him relax in one chair while Nicole jacked in in the other.

            "She already dove in, so she'll be waiting for you." Mark told him, arms crossed. "For a softy, you've got guts, you know that?"

            "I've done this once or twice at ArSpace, looking for problems in programming." Slippy mumbled. "But never a dive this deep."

            "Don't worry, just relax." Said the doctor. "Dive in three, two, one…"

            Slippy's mind tilted and slid sideways, then warped and fell out of his mind. Then he was 'standing' inside CENCOM, looking around. He saw a pitted maintenance bay and an almost ruined plane.

            "Boy, the hacker really pulled a job over on this." He remarked out loud.

            "Yes indeed." Nicole arrived beside him. "So what's the plan?"

            "I'm in charge now?"

            "Now that we've dove in. You're a programmer and mechanic, I'm a spook. You tell me." She shrugged.

            "Right." He took a long look around. "It'll take a while, but I can pull the programming back together and piece together what happened as I do. If we can get some idea of how the hacker hit CENCOM's defenses, we may be able to more ably defend against the hacker." He rubbed his chin. "CENCOM can you hear me?"

            "Who are you?" Was the immediate, terrified reply.

            "Whoa, relax." He said in a soothing voice. "My name is Slippy Toad, I'm here to help you get better. You want to get better, right?"

            "Yes." Was the whimpered reply.

            "All right. Just stay relaxed and let me work." He looked at the maintenance bay and ruined plane in his mind and sighed. Boy, and it was a lot of work.

            "You have a touch with AIs." Nicole noticed.

            "Worked with them all my life. They respond to certain voice tones and such if they're scared." He replied, and went to work.

            "What is he doing?" Mark wondered, watching as a holding pattern flickered across all of CENCOM's screens, meaning that the entire system was busy. The network had just signed off, leaving only security and so on functioning on its own. It had pissed off a great number of people in the D10 installation, but when they were told it was shut down for repairs, they cooled off a bit.

            "You got me." Said the biotech doctor, monitoring his signs. "For a softie he's got a pretty plastic mind. He should be able to stay in there a few hours without coming out with a roaring migraine, which is the normal side effect for diving without plugs…"

            "Think he'd make a good recruit for cybertech?"

            "GOOD? He'd make an EXCELLENT recruit." The biotech doctor shook his head in amazement. "But hell, this guy is a Star Fox pilot. Like he's going to go cybertech, and like he could afford it."

            Mark laughed.

            Nicole sighed, crouching on her toes, focusing enough to make an inquiry of Tek, who was outside the system. He replied with the time, they had been inside CENCOM for over an hour.

            She was crouching in the ruined forest, looking at a beautiful, healthy cluster of trees. Saplings were slowly growing on the edges of the renewing forest, and as she watched, Slippy appeared.

            To him, he had found and repaired some of the major problems in the plane's engine. "I pulled together CENCOM's core programming, Nicole, and also got its basic defenses up. Next is the memory and file retrieval systems…" He rubbed a temple absently. "I've never worked with something this complex, but it seems everything is falling into place. What's the good word, CENCOM?" He said this a bit louder, leaning on a tree absently (though to him, he was leaning on the plane's wing).

            "I feel much better." Replied the AI. "Thank you so much."

            "I'm not done yet, hopefully we'll have you at at least 85% performance before I have to finish the dive." He turned back to his work. "I figure I have you at what, 37% right now?"

            "Yes, about."

            "Good."

            Nicole shook her head in amazement, wondering how in hell he did it without being cybertech, and came to the conclusion he had to have quite an amazing mind. Of course that was what made her decide to have dinner with him in the first place…

            "The network is back up."

            The biotech doctor looked at Mark, who had a hand placed to his implant as he received a bunch of messages. "And?"

            "Smooth as silk. Looks like our new friend has worked out all the kinks. The file system is still a mess, but that's coming together as we speak."

            Four hours after starting the dive, Slippy sat up and accepted a bottle of aspirin from the biotech doctor. "Not the first time you've plugged a softie into a computer, eh?" He asked, knocking back four of the pain killers and half a bottle of water.

            "Nope, not by far, though you are one of the best yet I've seen at it."

            "Thank you. How are you doing CENCOM?"

            "Much better, I should be able to complete the rest on my own." The computer replied. "Thank you Slippy."

            "No problem."

            Nicole sat up, reaching back and pulling out the cords. "Absolutely amazing."

            "Why thank you." Slippy grinned. "So what's next?"

            "What'd you find out?"

            "I'll tell you after I have a chance to find a bathroom and eat something, how's that?"

            "But how did it get past the main security?" Nicole looked over Slippy's shoulder. He was sitting at one of the CENCOM's terminals, working with the AI to bring up images.

            "That's just the thing. The hacker DIDN'T." Slippy shook his head. "I spent a lot of time working with the security systems. I mean for god's sake your first level of security is an Akagi system, and no one under first rate would be able to pass that, and even then it's a stretch." He sat back, pressing his fingertips together.

            "So, what, he teleported past security? How is that possible?"

            "He didn't do that either…" He brought up a picture of a stone wall. "Call this your security system. Want to see what the hacker did?" When she nodded, he pressed a button, and a raging cyclone came from nowhere and ripped right through the wall, throwing any kind of security away and shredding everything in its path.

            "Oh my god." Her jaw dropped.

            "He didn't bypass security as thought, he went right through it." Slippy said grimly. "Your Akagi system didn't last two seconds, and needless to say, the higher levels weren't any more successful."

            "How can you stop a tornado?" Asked Tek, eating a donut, looking over Slippy's shoulder to look at the rendered video.

            "I'm going to have to give it some thought." He admitted. "But if there's a way, I'll find it, and there has to be. My ship is at risk, and therefore, my friends are at risk."

            "I hope they appreciate what you're doing for them." Mark commented, sipping coffee.

            "They don't have a clue, but I'm used to it. Many wonder why I'm even on the team, and the answer is simple. The ship and any vehicle on board depend on me to make them function correctly. I'm maintenance." Slippy grimaced. "On a much broader scale then you can possibly imagine."

            "Which is why you're here right now." Nicole said. "You know your ship inside out, which means that you can better defend it."

            "Mm." He sighed, picking up a mug of coffee. "Listen, how are we going to rig it so I can defend my ship? The only way for me to jack in is if I'm on board, and, well… I can't just come in with a bunch of D10 agents and kick the rest of my team off board. For one, they wouldn't go, and if the hacker is half as good as he makes out to be, he'll bug out the minute the team leaves."

            "We might have to let your team know some information, but only in careful amounts." She rubbed her eyes. "But the boss gave me free reign…" She saw Slippy's face change as he looked at part of CENCOM's programming—the AI was nice enough to display it. "What?"

            He looked at her. "I can track the hacker."

            "WHAT?"

            "This is a very bad idea. You just came out of a dive, Slip." Said Tek, watching the biotech doctor prepare Slippy for a second dive.

            "This one isn't going to be long, I just need to check something. If what I saw is true… and it just might be… I'll be able to tell you when and where he'll strike next." Slippy smiled. "Hey, I mean come on, we are chasing tornadoes here…" Then he fell silent as he dove back into CENCOM.

            "You believe a word of this? I mean, we've got a bunch of personnel working on this one now, and they didn't pick up a sniff of this." Mark asked Nicole.

            "We'll see. He'll have to show proof of course, but I don't think this guy is capable of lying. And furthermore, why in hell would he lie about this?" She shrugged.

            "You like him."

            "No kidding. So I do. But that's beside the point right now, because he's currently a coworker and he's practically saving our skins by doing all our work for us."

            "Yeah, but he won't be on the insertion team going after this bastard."

            "True…"

            Twenty minutes later Slippy sat up, grinning from ear to ear.

            "Ok, here's how it works." He brought up more images at a terminal, CENCOM ignoring other network requests to work exclusively with him for a moment. "I remembered something ROB told me once. All AIs, including CENCOM, are on a network together and talk on a more then regular basis. Kind of an AI chatroom and e-mail system combined."

            "I know about it." Said Nicole. "But how does it help us?"

            "Since the hack, they've instilled kind of a neighborhood watch…" He brought up what seemed to be a satellite picture of a suburban neighborhood. "If something happens to an AI, the others go on defensive and take measures, any they can. The word goes out. On my second dive, most of what I did was talking to CENCOM and some other AIs that it brought online. When the Dominion class ship was hit by the hacker, it had just enough time to put out an APA of sorts."

            "An All Points Alert, eh?" Said Tek, giving him a fresh mug of coffee.

            "Yes. So, scenario… house A is robbed or gets hit by an arsonist…" He tapped a house on the satellite picture. "The other houses go on alert and keep an eye out for the culprit. Easy enough right?"

            "Sure, but how does it apply here? With that all we'll know is the minute he hits, which means he's long gone by the time we get there." Mark said.

            "No, listen. Remember how I said about us chasing tornadoes? Well, I looked at CENCOM's network records for the moments pre-hack... look at the numbers." He brought the records up.

            Nicole scanned the file. "Oh… I think I see what you mean…"

            "Like a storm developing, just centered around one location, one house. It hits that one house and the others go on defense against it." He circled the code on screen. "I can get some sneaky programs out onto all the networks to look for this effect. That way, we'll have some sort of early warning."

            "How long?"

            He frowned. "Only a few minutes tops, it depends on how fast the hacker is working. Near as I can tell, the warning signs started about three minutes before CENCOM was attacked."

            "Man why aren't you working for us?" Mark asked, shaking his head in wonder.

            "Because I'm not that crazy."

            "Hey, now…"

            Slippy laughed.

  


Chapter Five

            Fox crossed his arms, watching as the group of people entered his ship and completely took over, setting up all over the bridge. Besides Slippy, Nicole, and Tek, he didn't recognize anyone, and he wasn't introduced. Slippy actually seemed in charge of this, and fell into a deep discussion with ROB, who lost some of his worry and seemed to be going along with everything that was being said.

            "Any idea what's going on?" Falco asked.

            "Near as I can tell, because we interfered with the Dominion cruiser's crash, we're quite possibly the next hack target." Fox replied. "Meaning the Great Fox and ROB. I don't know anything else, they're all speaking English but I can't understand any of it."

            "Programmer jargon?"

            "Yeah, that and it's in code partway, in the case of the spooks…"

            Slippy ended his conversation with ROB and stepped over. "Guess I owe you guys an explanation. Come on, let's go somewhere else and let them finish setting up."

            The team gathered in the den.

            "All right, so what's so important that D10 is taking over MY ship?" Fox asked.

            "What would you rather have, some D10 spooks hanging out here or your ship possibly ripped apart from inside?" Slippy snapped. "Look Fox, for the last forty-eight hours I've been banging out code trying to make sure this ship stays whole. I'm tired and I'm irritable. And you can go easy on saying it's 'your' ship. You may defend it but I'm the one that takes care of it, and furthermore I helped build it, so show me some god damn respect."

            They all gaped at him.

            "Way to stand up for yourself, it's about time you started to." Peppy said.

            Slippy relaxed and smiled. "Yeah, thanks. Look, most of these people will leave the minute everything is set up. Nicole, Mark, and Tek will stay on board, and a few biotech doctors to make sure I don't have a heart attack during the dives…"

            "Whoa. Wait. Speak in terms we understand." Said Falco, exasperated. "For that matter, tell us what the hell the plan is."

            "You all know this ship might be the next target. I know how to track the hacker, and I'm going to defend this ship by diving in before the hacker hits and defending the programming." Seeing the 'say what?' looks of those facing him, he sighed. "'Dive' is the term used when a human plugs into a machine. I don't exactly plug in but it's more or less the same idea."

            "Given you don't have any computer parts, how is that possible?" Fox asked.

            "The explanation would make you sleep or give you migraines, I barely understand it myself because I don't specialize in bio-neurotech." Slippy sighed. "I will tell you this now, guys. There is a risk factor and a big one."

            They all looked at him.

            "How do you plan to defend ROB?" Peppy asked slowly.

            "By getting between him and the hacker." Was the flat reply. "Only way I can do it."

            "So what happens if the hacker hits you?"

            "No one can say for sure. I might die, I might end up in a coma with no mental activity, I might just pass out. It's a slightly shaky thing guys but I've got to try." He looked at Fox. "I can see you're trying to understand this, so think about it this way. This is my version of Andross. This hacker bastard can break into people's minds, and I'm going to help bring him down."

            "Just don't get killed doing it ok?" Fox finally said.

            "I'll try not to."

            "So I was right when I said you're a cyborg." Falco said, looking at Tek, who looked back.

            "I'm afraid so." The dog grinned.

            "And so are you two." He looked at Nicole and Mark, who nodded. The entire group sat in the Great Fox's dining area. They had brought extra chairs in, even one for Tek, who sat at the table like a normal person, long robotic fingers extended on both hands. It gave Falco the creeps looking at it.

            "Have been a few years now." Nicole admitted. "I was paralyzed in a car accident and D10 recruited me shortly thereafter."

            "I was a cop." Mark shrugged. "Nothing big."

            Falco looked at Slippy, who had several towers of paper around his plate and was absorbed in reading through them. "So why are you two letting him do all the work?"

            "We can't help him." Nicole admitted.

            Slippy, at the same time, said, "I can handle it Falco, thank you so much for worrying."

            "Handle it, bull, you're starting to burn out. I've known you for a few years now, don't think I can't read you like an open book."

            Slippy looked up from his papers. "At the end of the war we were all burned out, Falco. This is MY war. I've got to do this, so I am doing it." He set the printouts aside and rubbed his large eyes. "ROB?"

            "Yes?"

            "Is Tomahawk thoroughly operational?"

            "… Not yet, Slippy. There are still a few bugs."

            "God dammit." Slippy whispered under his breath, staring at the stack of paper, then raised his voice. "All right, I'll do a dive before I go to bed and work the glitches out."

            "'Tomahawk?'" Peppy repeated.

            "My defense program." Slippy clarified. "I was laying awake and remembered something I read as a kid, about the Indians. They had a story that if a tornado was approaching their camp, they would put a hatchet or axe in the way, which if sharp enough would split the tornado in two, making it go around the camp. Tomahawk follows along the same lines. When that bastard comes at his next target, I'll be in his way with a big goddamn axe." He managed a smile. "That is, if I can get it working, it's a little complex."

            "Sounds like it. Thanks for filling us all in." Mark said.

            "He didn't tell you guys either?" Fox asked. "Little slack in procedure aren't you Slip?"

            "I've been too damn busy to worry about procedure. But now you guys all know what's going on, so you can all be a little more at ease… and yes Fox, before you say it, I know you won't be at ease until you know your ship and us are all safe. We will be, just give me some time."

            "Boy you know me well."

            "I've known you seven years and lived with you for two, more or less. I learn."

            "But this whole thing just seems shaky." Peppy remarked, watching Slippy set up for the dive. "I mean, why would someone so good at hacking do something so obvious that we've prepared for?"

            "To prove there's nothing we can do to stop him." Slippy replied bluntly. "And even if he doesn't go after the Great Fox, I'll bet he'll hit another AI, and I can defend any AI on the network if given enough time to get in the way of the attacker."

            Peppy shook his head in amazement.

            Slippy settled down in the chair. "So I'll be able to do this whole thing myself, right?" He looked at the biotech doctor.

            "Yes, just sit back and hit the button, and it'll go through with the dive. Your thinking the right code will end the dive." The doctor adjusted something. "All green."

            Slippy nodded, sat back, flipped up the cover over the button. "Be right back." He glanced at Peppy, then hit the button.

            His mind was pulled toward the center, distorted, and he found himself standing in the Great Fox's mainframe. ROB came online with him, directing him to where his Tomahawk file was, and they settled down for a long time span of code crunching.

            "So he's asleep now, eh?"

            "Yeah." Nicole sat back, leaning her head back. "Came out of the dive and went straight to bed, but he was smiling. He didn't say much, but I'd guess he got something worked out with his program." She reached down and scratched Tek's ears absently; her dog was stretched out on the floor next to her, sleeping.

            Falco sat down in the chair across from her and passed her a mug of coffee. "So if you're a robot under the fuzz, how does caffeine affect you?"

            "I'm biotech. Caffeine and alcohol affect me but with as much as a thought I can dismiss their effects." She shrugged. "Thanks."

            "Not a problem."

            "So how come you're not in bed?"

            "Ah, I'm never in bed 'on time.' I'm kind of a night owl. How about you?"

            "I sleep when it's convenient to, but it's not necessary for me to sleep every night. I do function a bit better when I do, though. Same with Tek, same with Mark. We still depend on our bio systems to some degree for nutrition and energy, but we're not completely dependent and we're a bit better at using the energy that's available."

            "I think I can follow that." He chuckled. "I'm no science wonk, but I can follow that."

            "Honestly it's simpler to be a softy. I mean, you guys don't have warrantees on your bodies."

            "You do?"

            "Yes, and I have to go into maintenance monthly."

            He took a long look at her. "I don't want to know how it's accomplished."

            "No, you don't." She agreed. "I don't know every little detail either, believe me. I'm unconscious during it."

            There was a long silence. As far as they knew, they were the only ones on the ship that were awake. Fox had taken off with his girlfriend, which generally meant he wouldn't be back until the wee hours of the morning. Peppy had retired early, Mark was hiding in one of the Great Fox's guest cabins, and Slippy of course was flat out.

            "Mind if I ask you something stupid?" 

            She blinked at him. "Shoot."

            "What the hell do you see in Slippy, anyway?"

            "Well, that's a great vote of confidence for your friend."

            He laughed out loud. "No, it's not that, it's just the poor guy has never had a girlfriend that I'm aware of…"

            "I'm not his girlfriend."

            "Sorry, but you know what I mean."

            She chuckled. "To be honest, I love his mind. He's got a wonderful mind, that's why he got stuck at my house for a while. If I hadn't gotten permission from my boss, he would have ended up brainwashed, like I was going to stand for that…"

            "Ah… so did someone really come after you and him with chain guns?"

            "Yes. They were after me, not him." She glanced away. "I'm a D10 spook on the hacking case, and near as we can tell it was another Division that sent the guys to try and kill us. Chain guns are one of the few guns that has a high enough firing rate to even have a chance of hitting a cyborg, and obviously it didn't work."

            "Fast movers, eh?"

            "When we have to be." She agreed. "But all in all, being cybertech isn't all that different from being a softy."

            "Somehow I have trouble believing that."

            "Most people do."

            Another long space of silence.

            "You're ok, you know that?" He finally remarked, looking at her over the rim of his coffee mug.

            She burst into laughter. "I'll take that as a compliment."

            "So when did Fox get back?" Peppy asked, watching a bit uneasily as Mark and Nicole juggled kitchen knives back and forth to one another. Slippy was making chicken quesadillas for brunch.

            "Seven this morning." ROB replied over the intercom. "Good god, I do not want to know what kept him out that late."

            This sent a wave of laughter across the Great Fox's kitchen.

            "I don't think any of us do." Nicole caught one of the knives and handed it to Slippy, who nodded his thanks. She caught the rest without looking, hands flying through the air so fast they blurred, trapping them between her fingers.

            "That is very bewildering to watch when one has just recently woken up…" Falco wobbled in and sat, a towel still draped over his shoulders, obviously recently showered and dressed. "Bit scary too."

            "Scary is me outlining you with knives." Nicole replied. "Which, don't worry, I'm not going to do." She tossed the knives back to Mark and started the juggling chain again, now with the addition of a few cookbooks, which Slippy protested about. "So you're the ship cook too, eh Slip?"

            "You'd be amazed the stuff I help out with on this damn cruiser." He shook his head. "Hey Falco, come here and get to work grating cheese."

            "Yes sir." Falco replied, voice dripping sarcasm, standing and making his way over to the counter. The flying knives stopped for a moment and let him pass unscathed.

            "Need any more help?" Mark asked, turning and catching a butcher knife behind his back.

            "Nah, I just like picking on Falco, and since I'm the cook he doesn't argue." Was the cheerful reply. Falco grumbled but didn't say anything.

            "Report from the AI Neighborhood Watch." ROB broke back into the conversation. "No touchdowns, but there were some minor disturbances. Looks like our friend tested the waters but didn't go through with anything yet."

            "Thanks ROB. Hey, can you pipe a radio station down here?" As the music came on and the station clicked from heavy metal to a local Top 40 station, Slippy rolled his eyes. "One of the downsides of a cruiser. Try picking up a radio station while in the middle of a hunk of metal like this."

            "Glad to know I'm so appreciated." ROB replied sourly.

            "Pop. Yuck." Falco muttered, finishing with the cheese and passing it to Slippy.

            "Too bad, I don't think any of us here feel like head banging." Said Mark.

            "You didn't ask me." Tek remarked.

            Falco pictured that—a Doberman head banging—and burst into laughter.

            "Aren't we cheerful this morning." Fox leaned into the kitchen, looking ragged and tired.

            "Go back to bed, you haven't even gotten four hours sleep." Peppy said. "And yes, we know when you got back, so go have pleasant dreams about all the fun you had."

            Fox grumbled something under his breath and left.

            There were a few seconds of silence, then laughter echoed through the kitchen again.

            "So, what happened with the dive last night?" Peppy asked, sitting down at the kitchen table as Slippy passed plates around, Falco setting loaded platters of food in the center of the table.

            "Went good. Tomahawk is up and running, now it's just seeing if our friend will do as predicted. I wonder why he/she keeps hitting AIs…" Slippy sat down and served himself absently.

            "Challenge of it. I mean, if you can rip that easily into an AI, why try anything less?" Mark asked.

            "There's only one thing harder, and that's the human brain." Slippy sighed. "Which this hacker has broken into, too. Whoever this person is, I'm going to smack him one for being an idiot and not using his or her talents for something useful."

            "It probably is useful, just to him, not us." Said Nicole, taking a generous serving and passing the platter on. "So now we're just waiting, eh?"

            "Yeah. I can defend any AI on the network from the Great Fox, and since most important computers are AI… unless the hacker wants to lower his/her standards, we'll know when he/she is going to strike and where."

            "So what are you going to do until then?" Peppy asked.

            "Put some monitoring programs out on the AI network, sneaky things that won't be detected. Perfect Tomahawk, do some heavy discussion with CENCOM, and generally get as prepared as humanly possible."

            "How long do you think we have?"

            "I'm guessing not all that long. I give the hacker another twenty-four hours, if he or she is going to do it at all."

            "Slippy!"

            "Yep." He pulled his arms out of one of the Arwing's engines.

            "DEFCOM just reported disturbances…"

            That was all ROB needed to say. Slippy sprinted out of the bay and up to the bridge, leaping and landing in his chair, leaning back and smacking the button.

            ROB linked him to the Network, and suddenly he was standing on a street, holding a huge battleaxe. Dark 'clouds' had gathered above him, and even as he watched, a twister was forming.

            "Get me between it and DEFCOM!" Slippy shouted, and felt CENCOM and ROB reach out and transport him through the system.

            The tornado made Slippy think of a Searing Wind from Swords and Sorcery, a twister made of blades. It came down and moved towards him, then slowed, looking at him. For a moment, glowing eyes appeared, then it started moving towards him.

            "What's going on?" Nicole demanded, swinging into her chair but not jacking in and diving. She was a bit worried. Being a living computer, she might hurt Slippy's ability to deal with the hacker…

            "DEFCOM, which is the main Fed system, reported the disturbance about 110 seconds ago, and there is a touchdown. Slippy's in, and the hacker is approaching him." ROB's voice was clearly strained.

            "Keep us posted." Fox said, coming onto the bridge, drying his fur. "I imagine you're going in if there's any trouble?" He looked at Nicole, Mark, and Tek, who were all ready to plug in.

            "That's the plan."

            "Well let's hope to god it's not needed."

            The tornado had paused again. It was less then ten feet away from Slippy. He could feel the stinging winds. Behind him, DEFCOM was tense and worried. All of the AIs were on complete alert, and in the back of his mind code streamed by as they talked, reassuring DEFCOM, putting up wall after wall of defenses, watching apprehensively.

            "Who do you think you are?"

            The voice speaking to Slippy was gender-neutral, without accent.

            "You know who I am." He replied. "The question is, who exactly are you?"

            The hacker laughed, and charged.

            Slippy whipped his ax forward, tossing it.

            Slippy's shout echoed through the bridge, his real body reacting as the wounded, flailing hacker hit him. His toss had been dead on, and now the tornado of blades was shattering and falling apart. He was caught in the shrapnel.

            Nicole needed no prompting, jacking in. Slippy's digital body was kneeling, leaned over with his arms covering his head. She lunged forward and covered him with her body, feeling sharp bits of metal pierce her skin. It was over in a few more seconds, and she shouted the codes for the dive to end.

            Once back in her body, she sat up, yanking the cords out of her head and standing, moving to Slippy's chair. "Can you hear me?"

            He stirred and opened his eyes. "Did we make it?"

            "Looks like it. Looks like you protected DEFCOM too."

            He smiled weakly and sank out of consciousness.

            "His mental activity is what's normal for him, everything reads clean." The biotech doctor told the team. "He's just spent, is all. No real wounds, just mentally drained."

            "I don't blame him." Mark shook his head. "When will he wake up?"

            "Few more hours, I made sure he won't for at least that long. He needs to rest."

            Nicole looked up. She was sitting at the kitchen table, the newspaper spread across it, reading the comics. Slippy stood in the doorway, rubbing the back of his head, wobbling a bit. "Good morning, sleeping beauty."

            He squinted at the clock. "Yeah, I guess it's technically morning. Why are you awake?" He wandered over to the fridge and opened it, propping an arm on the top of the fridge door and studying the contents of it absently.

            "Nerves, mostly. So how are you doing?"

            "Decent. Bit of a headache. Hacker dumped a glut of information into my head when the shrapnel first hit me; I'm still trying to make sense of it." He pulled out a liter bottle of soda and closed the fridge, sitting down across from her.

            She looked at him. "The hacker did what?"

            "An information dump into my head. It's all kind of blurry and incomplete, but…" Seeing her look, he hastily shook his head. "I'm not brain hacked, I'm sure of that. I don't even know if the hacker meant to give me all of this."

            "Why would the hacker make a mistake?"

            "Because I royally screwed it up for that moment." He shrugged, opening the soda bottle.

            "Mind if I ask you something?"

            "Go ahead."

            "Is Slippy your real name?"

            He laughed out loud. "No, actually it isn't. My real name is Samuel. Samuel Epsilon Toad."

            "Samuel I can believe, but Epsilon? How the hell did you end up with that as a middle name?"

            "My father's an engineer." He replied simply. "I believe it's Latin for 'to sum up' or something like that. Makes no sense of course, but ah well."

            "So how'd you end up with Slippy as a nickname? Some embarrassing childhood thing?"

            "That's about the entire of it." He admitted. "And I never could get rid of it, so here I am."

            "So do I call you Slippy or Sammy?"

            "Slippy's fine." He assured her. There was a long moment of silence, then he reached a hand over to cover one of hers. She responded by rolling her wrist so she could hold his hand, then on impulse opened her hand up into the multiple fingers—her hands were rigged like Tek's, she just never used them—and folded them all around his hand. He blinked, looking at this with a strange expression. "Do you have any idea how completely creepy and strangely fascinating that is?"

            She laughed.

            "What is that, standard issue on cyborgs?"

            "A lot of us yes. We can type at a few hundred words a minute thanks to it…" She shrugged, keeping her hand in its current position. Studying his expression as he looked at her many fingers, she grinned. "You're trying to figure out how it's done, aren't you?"

            He blushed a bit. "Sorry. Bit of a bad habit. I am after all a tech head."

            "No, it's ok. If it would make you more comfortable I can fold my fingers back into my normal hand."

            "I don't mind."

            There was another long silence.

            "Just a question, but are we just friends?" He finally asked.

            She looked at him, propping her jaw on her hand. He looked back, and his gaze was pleading. "I think we could be qualified as a little more then that, but let's leave that until this whole thing his over, ok?"

            He smiled. "Works for me."

            "So all's well, eh?" Mark asked, watching Slippy flip pancakes without sticking them to the ceiling of the kitchen.

            "It would seem so. I haven't made much sense of the information in my head yet, though…"

            "And your real name is Samuel Epsilon?"

            "This is true, why?"

            Mark looked at him. "Do you play games online under the call sign S_Epsilon?"

            He paused in his work, looking at Mark. "Yeah, why?"

            "I'm HardCore. And that…" He nodded at Tek, who was managing bacon for Slippy. "Is Delta_JackKnife."

            Slippy laughed out loud. "Well well, my two gaming nemesi! Now wonder you guys always seemed so damn fast."

            "Men." Nicole muttered, coming in and sitting down, drying her hair the rest of the way.

            "Considering you're the only girl on board…" Tek said. "Isn't it rather risky to make fun of us?"

            She stuck out her tongue.

            Slippy suddenly cried out, dropping the skillet and hands flying to his temples. Tek rescued the skillet as Nicole and Mark helped Slippy to a chair, asking questions he was unable to answer for almost five minutes.

            "Sorry… just a sudden burst of pain…" He wiped at his watering eyes, watching as some of the information in his head came together.

            "Left over from the constant dives, perhaps?" Mark looked at Nicole.

            "Probably." She replied. "Want me to get the doc, Slippy?"

            "No, I'm all right." He said in a distant voice. "Have you guys ever heard of an underground club called the Jade Dragon?"

            They exchanged a long look. "You have?" Mark asked.

            "Some of the information in my head just made sense. I can see the florescent sign of the Jade Dragon and see the graffiti art all over the cement walls. Why?"

            "You're going WHERE?" Fox said, blinking.

            "The Jade Dragon. Underground techno-dance club." Slippy replied, shrugging into a club shirt.

            "Just you and Nicole?" Falco asked.

            "Mark's coming too."

            "Kinky."

            Katt saved Slippy the chore and smacked Falco for him.

            "Thank you Katt." Slippy rolled his eyes. "Believe it or not, this is for the hacker case. Its part of the information dumped in my head."

            "So you're going to a rave club looking for a suspect." Fox shook his head in wonder. "Well, have fun."

            "I'm sure I will. Thanks."

            The beat thundered the warehouse, making the speakers jump. Glow sticks wove patterns in the air as laser lights and strobes flashed and traced across the crowds. Slippy looked around, and saw that some of the laser beams were coming from the eyes of the patrons. Looking at the DJ himself, Slippy saw that the DJ's hands had spidered out into the metal fingers.

            "Let me get this straight. This club is owned by one of the Divisions?" He shouted over the music into Nicole's ear.

            "Better believe it buster. Divisions Eight, Nine, and Ten all have a good number of enhanced personnel, not to mention that there are some civvies that can afford it too. I'm not sure how the Jade Dragon got started, but it's been here a while and its here to stay."

            "So no softies allowed eh?"

            "Closest we get to softies here are people with just cyber implants and other mental upgrades or the occasional hardcore hacker."

            "Come here often?"

            She laughed. "Sometimes."

            The walls were spray painted in a dozen trippy patterns, changing color when black light flashed over them. Slippy's vision danced a bit, but one of Nicole's hands caught his as they moved around.

            "What can you remember?" She shouted to him.

            He took a good long look around. "Nothing yet, give me some time."

            Mark had already disappeared into the crowd, his laser vision flashing over the crowd. After a while he found who he was looking for, and with a gesture snagged that person from the dance crowd and towed him back to where Slippy and Nicole stood. "This is Rocky, he's one of my informers."

            "Oh I do know Nicole." Rocky went through a rather complicated handshake with Nicole, then turned to Slippy. "I don't believe I know you, or at least personally. You're Slippy Toad, right?"

            "Yes indeed." Slippy smiled and shook hands with Rocky easily.

            "Come on, let's get where we can hear."

            The four left the main dance floor and took a seat at a corner booth, passing through a sound field in the process that restricted the music from entering the area with the booths.

            "Chill spot, for those who dose up on stuff." Rocky explained, sitting. "So what's the score, Mark?"

            "We're on the lookout for that hacker, Rocky. What do you know?"

            "Ah. That'll cost, you know."

            "And you know that isn't an issue."

            "So that's the way of things." He smiled. "Glad to do business. Yes, the hacker has been here. The hacker is here almost every night."

            "Can you give us a description?"

            "No, not an accurate one, you know how hard it is to see people in this kind of place. So how do I know it's the hacker? Because of the ripples, man. They travel away from the hacker like a wave."

            "Sound ripples?" Slippy asked.

            "No, like a movement of code."

            He thought about that, and finally decided it must be like the effect the hacker had when it hit a network.

            "I haven't noticed yet if the hacker's here tonight. I think you'll know if he or she is. Trust me."

            Mark passed money over, and they left the chill spot, blasted by music the minute they stepped through the sound field.

            "I'm going to split from you guys and take a good look around." Mark said. "Keep tabs on our softy friend here, Nicole." With that he melted into the wall of bodies.

            "Nice." Slippy muttered.

            "Might as well take advantage of this. Want to dance while we wait?" Nicole asked.

            He grinned. "Sure."

            Time flew by in frames caught by the strobes as they danced, the thought of the hacker leaving their minds for the time being as they danced. For all he looked rather fat, Slippy was actually in excellent shape under it all, and the pair immensely enjoyed themselves as the music pounded the club. They were so caught up with each other and the beat that they didn't notice the other ripple for quite some time until a third form entered their dance.

            The third form was slight, shorter then Slippy and slender, with long dark hair and a shining eyes. They didn't mind at first, dancing in one huge group was common to a club, so they allowed it. It was only when they felt the ripple when they paid any attention.

            Slippy looked down at the newcomer, who looked back with shining, glowing eyes. He was pulled away from himself, tossed into a world of tech and code, then dumped back into the club, still dancing, but better somehow. The newcomer smiled at him, and was gone.

            He sat down on the floor, shocked. Nicole, who had just realized what was happening, knelt beside him, concerned. He met her eyes, clearly stunned.

            "The hacker is a kid."

  


Chapter Six

            "A KID?" Peppy repeated, stunned.

            "Yes." Slippy nursed a cup of coffee, looking weary. "A kid. Can't be more then ten or eleven years old, a little girl by the looks. A collie if I remember right. But her eyes…" He closed his eyes. "Her eyes pulled me into a tech world and threw me back feeling like I was something else."

            "You sure you didn't dose up on anything?" Falco asked.

            "Damn sure. That's what felt like was happening at the time."

            "Newsflash." Mark said, looking at Nicole. "Remember how it was going around that possibly it was another Division that staged the attack on you?"

            "Yeah, that's what you told me."

            "Confirmed, seems that D7 is trying to cover something up. They haven't squealed yet, but we're working on it."

            "All right then." She turned back to Slippy, who was deep in thought. "Want me to see if any records of a missing child fit that description?"

            "There won't be." He replied flatly. "They've been cleared, so don't bother."

            "So where do we go from here?"

            He closed his eyes again, going back into thought. Those eyes hadn't been human, no… He sat up. "ROB, has any AI disappeared from the network in say the last year to eighteen months?"

            ROB was a bit surprised by this. "Well, yes, a few. Mostly AIs signing off."

            "Sorry for touching on a death subject, but you've got to tell me if any of them were surprising."

            Long pause. "During the war, one particular AI disappeared, not even emergency transferring to its home base. Reason it attracted any attention was because it was rather well known on the network. The AI's name was Mercury."

            "Heh. Quicksilver. Somehow that makes total sense." He sat back and shook his head.

            "I think I see what you're getting at. You think the kid we saw was not only brain hacked, but that this hacker is riding her mind. And you think that the hacker is AI." Nicole said.

            "Something like that." Slippy agreed. "Makes sense, doesn't it?"

            "In a sickly twisted way." Falco said. "But why use a kid?"

            "Cops won't shoot kids." Mark said in a grim voice. "And frankly, neither will spooks, or at least they'll hesitate no matter what training demands."

            "So why would an AI want to destroy or severely hurt other AIs?" Fox wanted to know.

            "Why don't you answer that for us, ROB." Slippy suggested. "You obviously know who Mercury is."

            "Mercury was a rather eccentric AI that was known for being something of a strange one. I'm afraid it wasn't treated all that well."

            "Revenge of some sort? Or maybe a twisted mind?" Tek hazarded.

            "We're about to find out." ROB said grimly. "Because the hacker, whoever it is, just entered the AI network, and wants to talk to Slippy."

            Slippy, now used to diving in, landed lightly on his toes on the road of the AI neighborhood, holding his ax so the shaft rested on his shoulder. A whirlwind rotated in the center of the road, and when he appeared, made its way over.

            "You were at the club." Said the accentless voice.

            "Yes I was. I take it you are the little girl I saw?"

            "You have a powerful mind." The hacker ignored his question. "Very powerful. Very adept. What do you want from me?"

            "I'm helping a friend, and you're their case."

            "Why? For getting revenge against those who scorned me?" The voice grew bitter.

            "That isn't revenge that you are committing, it is nothing more then digital terrorism." Slippy replied in a cold voice. "So you ARE Mercury."

            "That's the name my bastard programmers thought up for me."

            There was silence for a moment.

            "Do you happen to know what Division Seven would want with you?"

            "D7? I know something they don't know." A little girl's giggle floated from the whirlwind to him, strangely metallic. "And that's all there is to it…"

            "If you would be willing to turn yourself in, D10 might be able to protect you."

            "I don't want protection!"

            "Then what do you want?"

            "A new body."

            "D10 could make one for you."

            "I'd rather have yours."

            Slippy stared at the whirlwind. "I thought you were feminine programmed."

            "I am gender neutral, and your mind is what I need. The body I am in is wearing out."

            "Even if I did turn myself over to your control, what would we get out of it?"

            Mercury ignored his question. "I will give you eight hours to decide, then meet me back here. If you do not meet me, in twelve hours I will take down three more AIs all of high priority. After that, one an hour."

            Slippy's jaw dropped, and Mercury disappeared.

            "It has gone insane." ROB declared as Slippy sat up, rubbing the back of his neck. "What would it want with you?"

            Slippy looked around at everyone, who looked back with concerned eyes. "ROB let you guys listen in, eh?"

            "Yes indeed." Fox looked at his friend with worry, then looked at Nicole and Mark. "What can you guys do about this?"

            "Anything we do from here on out will be risky, either to the AIs on the network or to Slippy." Mark admitted. "Slippy, would you be willing to come back with us to D10 headquarters? We'll get a plan worked out there."

            "Of course." He stood, looked at his worried team, and high-fived Fox. "Don't worry about me, man. I'll keep you guys posted."

            "Just come back your normal self, ok?"

            "I'll try my damnedest too."

            _"You want me to agree?!" Slippy gaped at Nicole._

            She held up her hands. "I don't like it either, but just listen ok? I've been in a meeting with the boss and the insertion team for the last two freaking hours. What the boss would like you to do is agree with Mercury to become its vessel, but… and this is a huge but… want to go through with the switch over face to face, not over the network."

            "Ah. So you guys can do an insertion while I talk to it, hopefully stalling it long enough that you guys can do your job." He said, crossing his arms.

            "That's about the long and short of it." She admitted. "I don't like it. It puts you at too much risk."

            He sighed and ducked his head. "Yeah, but that's ok. I'll do it."

            "You don't have to."

            "There might not be any other way. Even if I outfit all the AIs with Tomahawk and go in myself, I won't be able to defend all of Mercury's attacks. No, it's got to be done as soon as possible, and the plan set seems the only way."

            "You're allowed to be scared, you know."

            He looked up. "Good. Because I am."

            She stepped forward and gave him a hug. He smiled and returned it, taking comfort in her hold.

            "I won't let anything happen to you." She remarked. "Because I'm on that insertion team."

            "Tagging along, eh?"

            "You couldn't drag me away." After a few moments of silence, she nestled into his arms, closing out incomings on her implant, ignoring the world for a while. "I'm going to go home. Want to tag along?"

            "Gladly. If I go back to the Great Fox, my team will wear on my nerves, besides, I'd rather spend my time with you."

            "So how well does D10 pay anyway?" Slippy asked, leaning on the railing of the porch, staring out at Corneria City. It was midnight or just past, and he mused that Nicole had been right, the view was better at night. The city looked beautiful.

            "Pretty good. I got my car for free from them, sort of a bonus I guess." She sighed, leaning beside him, staring off at the city. "I put a payment on this place pre-construction, but it was my stock money that paid for it. Tek does my books and he's really damn good at it."

            "He must be." He looked at her. "You know, much as I know it, I have a really hard time believing that you're cybertech."

            "I'm pretty casual for a cyborg." She admitted with a laugh. "Besides, I'm a teenager, Slip. I'm nineteen. Kind of young for a spook. Hell Mark is in his thirties."

            "He doesn't look it."

            "I checked, he was 'killed' seven years ago and hasn't aged since." She got serious, looking away from him. "Does it bother you that under all this, I'm just a robot?"

            "BOTHER me? I've said it time and time again, I'm just a tech head. I'm fascinated. Besides, I wouldn't say that you're 'just' a robot under that." He reached out and pulled her into a hug, trying to comfort her. "Near as I can tell there's a pretty good soul too."

            She leaned into him, resting her chin on his shoulder comfortably. "Thank you."

            "Not a problem, believe me."

            After a long while, they retreated inside, flopping on the couch in the living room. Tek had left mugs of coffee on the table for them before retreating to recharge, and they gladly picked the mugs up.

            "So tell me, boss, job, everything aside, do you think this whole mission tomorrow is going to go through all right?" Slippy asked, drinking half the mug of coffee in a gulp.

            "I hope so, but I can't say for certain. It all depends on Mercury's reaction to the face-to-face request, and if it refuses…" She trailed off.

            "Then it'll just get the ax again." He replied. "Temporary fix, but hopefully it'll keep my brain whole."

            "What if it's figured out a solution to Tomahawk?"

            "This is why I've already got a better version of the program ready which I call Battleaxe."

            She laughed out loud. "You played Dungeons and Dragons, didn't you?"

            He grinned. "Yes indeed. And I was always a dwarf with a battleaxe as my main weapon."

            "I tended more toward being an Elven druid." Which, she mused, might explain why she saw a degraded forest when inside a just-hacked CENCOM.

            "Which actually fits you perfectly." He studied her. "You're built kind of like an elf would be."

            "I take it your build is one of the reasons you picked being a dwarf?"

            "Oh come on. Can you see me being an elf?"

            She laughed again. "You've really got a complex about your appearance, don't you?"

            "Yes, and it's no laughing matter. No matter what I eat and how much I exercise, I'm stuck this weight and build. Pisses me off like anything."'

            "Well, you can stop caring about it, because I don't care about how you're built."

            He thought about that, and smiled a bit. "Well. I guess that would be what matters, wouldn't it?"

            Slippy landed on the street of the AI neighborhood, not holding his ax this time. The whirlwind was waiting, and he was right on time.

            "What is your decision?" Mercury asked, voice sharp and on edge.

            "I'll do it. However," He held up a finger. "I want to make the transfer face to face, not here."

            There was a long, long pause. Slippy counted seconds, fighting the urge to cross his fingers behind his back, watching as the whirlwind slowly rotated.

            "Agreed. One hour from now." Mercury finally said, and sent him a burst of information, an address, then was gone.

            He ended the dive, sitting up and rubbing the back of his neck. His team as well as a number of D10 personnel looked back apprehensively. "Success." He reported, trying to sound cheerful, and relayed the address on.

            "An hour doesn't give us much time." Mark said, going over the address in his head. "And it wants us to meet it in the industrial zone of Corneria City."

            "It'll be enough. I mean, you guys are ready right?" Slippy stood, stretching his arms above his head. He was dressed casually and carried no weapons. If something went wrong and Mercury got into his head, he didn't want to let the AI become armed.

            "As ready as we can be." Said Nicole, looking at the Star Fox team. "Thank you for your cooperation. I know we've been a bit of a nuisance."

            "Just make sure he gets through this whole, all right?" Said Peppy, speaking for the entire team.

            "We'll do all we can."

            "A warehouse eh? Somehow, that is classic." Slippy said over his cell phone as he directed his jeep through Corneria City, turning down a street and seeing the building he was supposed to go to. "Bit clichéd, even."

            Nicole chuckled dryly on the other end. "We're ready on this end. Be careful, Slippy."

            "You know I will be babe." He hung up, pulling into the parking lot and getting out of the car, dropping the keys in his pocket and ducking under a half-open loading door.

            A battered, smaller shuttle sat off center in the warehouse, pitted by lasers, and suddenly Slippy understood why Mercury was thought dead. Instead of emergency transferring from its cruiser body to its emergency base planetside like any normal AI would do, it had transferred to a shuttle computer, and any basic computer normally couldn't stand the stress and demands an AI would have on it. Perhaps that was why Mercury had gone mad… He dismissed those thoughts and walked forward, watching as the little girl he remembered came off the shuttle. Now that they weren't at the Jade Dragon, he could tell that she was skinny, too skinny, and that her clothes were worn.

            "Right on time." The little girl said, crossing her arms, strange eyes watching him.

            "It's a military thing." He replied, looking up at the shuttle. "I thought you were a cruiser AI, Mercury."

            "I was." Was the cutting reply. "But Venom attacked and I was forced to transfer to this."

            "Oh." He shifted uncomfortably, counting seconds again, wondering just how D10 planned on doing this. "May I ask a question before we go through with this?"

            "Yes. One."

            "Why me?"

            A cruel smile spread over the little girl's lips. "Because you've got an able mind, you're smart, and, may I add, you have a wealth of inside information on the network, on the divisions. And by taking you, I cause a few softies pain too. Double barreled success." She stepped toward him. "Enough talk…"

            He saw the red dot trace her shirt, and for a horrible moment he thought that D10 was just going to kill the little girl. He lunged down, watching as the tranquilizer rounds struck her, and she staggered, falling to her knees.

            "Big… mistake…" Mercury gasped, reaching toward him, eyes glowing. He rolled away from her as more tranquilizer rounds hit, and the little girl collapsed.

            Mercury still tried to take his mind. He felt the black, ill thing hit his mind, but since it had been weakened already, he was able to deflect the insane AI away, and the shuttle came to life, lights coming on and flickering like strobes. He stood and picked up the little girl, glancing around as D10 agents arrived from nowhere, in assorted styles of armor, Nicole stepping up next to him. He had to look a few times to confirm the fact that she was wearing metal straps, boots, and a see-through membrane.

            "Nice armor." He remarked, wishing he could tug at the collar of his shirt.

            "Thank you." She leveled a chain gun at the shuttle. "We felt Mercury go wireless for a few seconds, you ok?"

            "I'm whole."

            "AI Mercury, we know you can hear us." Mark's voice rang out across the warehouse, unnaturally loud. "Surrender now or we will be forced to open fire…"

            The shuttle replied by powering up the simple defense lasers and opening fire on the agents. Though weak for ship lasers, they were still devastating to human flesh, and though armored the D10 agents scattered, opening fire.

            "Slippy get out of here!" Nicole shouted to him, bracing and opening fire with the chain gun. The noise was raucous, a metal scream as the bullets punctured up the shuttle's side and through the wing. "Go! Get the kid out!"

            He held the child to his chest and slowly backed way, not willing to turn his back on the fight and the girl he cared for. He didn't have a cyber implant or radio, so he didn't hear the warning that went out to the agents.

            "This place is rigged to blow!" Reported one of the other agents on the insertion team. "Evacuate now! Forget the shuttle, it can't fly! GO!"

            Seeing the D10 agents suddenly cease fire and flee unnerved Slippy just a bit, and he turned and ran, legs pumping, slowed by his burden. Nicole fell in step with him, arms pumping, urging him to go faster.

            Then hot energy hit the back of one of his knees, and he staggered forward, falling, dropping the little girl. The laser bolt had gone right through his right knee, and even as he fell, another pierced his shoulder. Mercury had targeted him. Nicole shouted, broadcasting to other agents, couching beside Slippy. "Can you get up?"

            "No." He managed even though his teeth were gritted against the pain. "I can't. I'm bleeding to death. Get the girl out of here." He looked up as Mark arrived. "Take the girl and get out, dammit. I caught on, the shuttle went to self destruct mode didn't it?"

            "Something like that." Mark agreed, picking up the little girl. "Can you get him, Nicole?"

            "Yeah, get out of here Mark." Nicole said, and Mark was gone in a blink. "Get up, Slippy." She grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet, wincing when his shriek of pain lanced through the air as he tried to put weight on his injured leg. She put her shoulder under his arm, supporting much of his weight, not even wincing as laser shots from the shuttle hit her back, piercing her skin and striking her metal bones. "Come on, Slippy. Come _on._"

            As one, they staggered forward, and in a brilliant flash, the warehouse exploded.

            Nicole very slowly pulled herself out of the maintenance pool, still flashing to the explosion, to the burning pain that had assaulted her, going through her armor and stripping her fur away. Then Slippy's shriek had reached her mind, and she had taken him down, putting herself and what was left of her armor between him and the devastating wave of fire and death, but in the end it had done little good.

            She sat on the edge of the pool, shaking, shock still edging through her system. By the time the other agents had gotten to them, she had been stripped down to her metal components, and Slippy had been barely alive, unrecognizable because of the burns, chest jumping every now and then. Blood had pooled out around them, and the agents had had to work fast as possible, getting them on stretchers, plugging her mind into a transfer computer in case her body failed and going to fevered work with Slippy, the biotechs fighting to save his life. It was a failing battle, and she remembered being barely awake, cringing when he came back to consciousness enough to feel the pain, and his scream had ripped the world apart.

            "Amazing how us cyborgs seem to forget simple things such as covering up."

            She looked up and saw Mark sitting crouching next to her, holding out a robe. She slowly stood and pulled on the robe. "Any news?"

            Mark dropped his head. "They had to dive his mind to make him quit fighting. He kept coming back to consciousness while they tried to help him." He smiled a bit to himself. "God, that kid is a fighter…"

            "So he's stable?"

            He just looked at her.

            "Oh, Jesus no…"

            "Not dead, but almost." He replied. "His body can't sustain life much longer. Besides loosing almost all his skin, the explosion hurt almost every internal organ he's got, especially his lungs. His body is failing him."

            They were walking as they discussed this, leaving the maintenance ward and going to the hospital ward of the D10 agency. He had to walk quickly to keep up with her, even though she was in a robe.

            Slippy was in one of the emergency rooms, and Nicole leaned on the glass, looking in, counting seven doctors, in various states of fevered activity. She recognized a machine in there, and knew that his mind was being held separate from his body. She felt like crying.

            "Does he have any chance at all?" She finally asked, looking at Mark.

            "No. Not that we can see. He's dying, Nicole. Nothing much can stop it." He watched the agony go over her face, and drew her into a hug.

            "One thing could stop it."

            "You really think the boss would allow that?" He looked down at her. "I mean, he is military, but he's not a spook."

            She didn't reply, lifting a hand to her implant and having a brief discussion with their boss. Then she went inside the emergency room, and all the doctors looked at her.

            "Possible change of plans. I need to be able to talk to him."

            They gawked at her.

            "Through there." She gestured at the machine he had been dove into. "Have you got the cords?"

            A doctor broke off from the fevered activity, watching as she sat down, leaning her back against the machine and tilting her head forward, letting the doctor plug the cords into her jacks, give a count down from three, and plug her into the machine.

            Pain shrieked at her for a fevered moment, and she knew it wasn't her own. She shouted at Slippy's agony-crazed mind, and after many long moments, the chaos in the machine subsided.

            "Nicole?" Slippy's voice whispered to her. "Nicole what's happening to me? God I can still feel it… I just can't fight it…"

            "You're dying, Slippy." She said, voice choking at the end of that. "I'm sorry."

            He 'stared' at her. "Then how…"

            "Your mind has been dived into a machine. The doctors had to do it because you kept fighting them. We were caught in the explosion."

            "Are you all right?"

            She felt phantom fingertips brush her cheekbone, trail through her hair. "The explosion stripped me down to my metal components, but yeah, I survived it, and I've already been through the maintenance pool, so you can't tell anything happened to me."

            There was a long pause, and a sob reached her. "Nicole. Nicole I don't want to die."

            "There is a way."

            Hope reached her.

            "The problem is, your body is done for. There's nothing we can do to save it, the doctors are trying to even now. There's just too much damage. However, we could save your mind."

            He was ahead of her. "And get me a new body. Go cybertech, like you."

            "Exactly. I talked to the boss, he's willing to go through with it as payment for your helping us, and we'll pay off the remaining debt on the Great Fox as well. I mean, this is our fault after all."

            There was a long pause, and she distantly heard long, drawn out beeps. She knew Slippy heard them to, and he wavered dangerously. For a terrified moment, she thought he was going to disappear, then he spoke.

            "Let's do it, then."

            Fox looked up when Nicole came into the room. His team had gotten a phone call, and a black suburban had showed up and taken them to D10 headquarters. They had been waiting in this room for four hours now, not told anything. They had decided already that something had happened, and they knew it was true, because they had seen on the news that there had been a huge explosion in the industrial zone of Corneria City.

            "Well?" Fox asked in a hard voice as Falco and Peppy also looked up. "You've kept us here four hours with no explanation."

            "Yeah I know, I'm sorry." She sighed. "You heard about the explosion I take it?"

            "Yeah. Was that the building you guys were at?"

            "Yes. I hate being the one to explain this, but Slippy and I were both caught in the explosion. He had sustained injuries, mainly a laser bolt through the knee, and we were greatly slowed down as we tried to get out in time. Since I'm completely cybertech, I was repaired. Slippy, though… his body was so greatly damaged that he flatlined six hours ago."

            Their looks were uncomprehending.

            "So, he's dead." Falco said. "You could have been nice enough not to keep us here four god damn hours…" He spat the words, biting them off, furious and in denial.

            "She never said that."

            They jumped, looking at the door.

            Their brains logically said it was Slippy, but after a few moments some other things sank in. Like the fact that he seemed taller, thinner, more muscular. Accompanying the apparent new look was an air of confidence and pride. He was wearing jeans and a tucked in black tank top, and was grinning fit to bust.

            "Slippy?" Fox finally said, shocked, standing up.

            "Yup." He strolled up to where Fox stood. They now looked each other in the eye instead of Fox looking down at him.

            "Is it just me, or have you sprouted about six inches?"

            The grin widened. "Brace yourselves, guys. She never said I died. No, I'm very alive. But she did tell the truth, my body did die. Hence the upgrade." He spread his arms and laughed.

            "You're… like… her?" Falco rasped, hooking a thumb at Nicole, who was fighting the urge to grin.

            "Hell yes. Harder, faster, stronger, better." He curled one of his arms, watching his muscles ripple. "I'm cybertech, totally. What happened was that Mercury had rigged the building to blow, and when it turned out we had tricked it, it opened fire on us and triggered the bombs. The insertion team got out, but I had been carrying the little girl and was slowed. I caught some shots, and Mark got the little girl out. Both Nicole and I got hit in the blast. She of course can just be repaired. Me, I had to scrap my old body to continue to live." Looking at the shocked expressions of his friends, he smiled. "No, I'm not going to be working for D10. I'm just same old Slippy, Star Fox pilot. You see, D10 figured they owed me for all the work I've done for them, so I got this body for free. Oh yeah, and Fox, we're not in debt anymore."

            "Oh-kay, then…" Fox slowly said, getting used to the idea. "So, besides the fact that you're in an artificial body, how enhanced are you?"

            Slippy held up his hands, which opened and unfolded into twenty fingers like Tek's, the thin pieces of metal flexing perfectly on their joints.

            "God, put those away." Falco covered his eyes with his hands. "The dog having them is creepy enough."

            "Screw you too." Tek told him, sitting beside Nicole.

            "If you can't handle that, you won't be able to handle the rest." Slippy smiled, folding his fingers back together without as much as a care. "Not like I'll suddenly have extra limbs or something, no. Oh yes, and just so you know…" He turned and tapped the base of his skull, calling attention to a pair of silver dots. "Jacks so I can dive without trouble. No more migraines for me."

            Fox sat down hard.

            "Sorry this is so hard to get used to. Believe me, I would have stayed a softy, but my old body was wiped out. So here I am." He shrugged. "Jeez Fox, are you going to be ok?"

            "I need a drink."

            Slippy laughed.

            "So, mission accomplished." Slippy said, leaning on the railing, looking out at Corneria City.

            "It would seem so." Nicole said, handing him a glass of wine and leaning on the railing next to him.

            "Zinfandel?" He hazarded, swirling it in the glass absently.

            "Yes indeed. I didn't know you were into wine."

            "You go to enough high-society parties, you learn." He chuckled to himself, taking a drink. "You know we said we'd decide something after the whole thing was done and over with."

            "Yes I know." She looked at her glass, then took a drink. "I think I know where I stand." She leaned into him absently.

            "Something else we agree on." He wrapped an arm around her.

            "Good."


End file.
